tl;dr: Are there opportunities to intern at a PE firm for a few months post-MBA before your full-time offer starts elsewhere? Does anyone know someone who has done this?
Long version:
Hi everyone. I'm trying to do some planning around my second year of business school, and I'd really appreciate if you could share some knowledge.
I'll be working in consulting for the summer and I'm already pretty confident that I'll take their offer if I earn it. FT hires for this company usually start in June or September after graduation. However, I have enough credits completed that it would be possible for me to graduate in December if I chose.
Has anyone ever heard of someone going to a PE firm to intern in between their graduation and FT gig? I understand if it seems like an odd use of the free time inherent in B-school, but after recruiting finished, this has been a pretty easy vacation (and class hasn't been that worthwhile) so I don't have any qualms about moving on.
Answers to potential questions:
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I'm aware that consulting --> PE is an odd path, but I've seen it play out in the lower MM much more than in megafunds. My goal is industry-sector-specific as well, and I'll get a lot of experience there at this consulting firm (as well as some PE due diligence work).
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I was an IB analyst/associate for two years in M&A before coming back to b-school. It was at a lower MM shop with like 15 guys, so not quite the same as MS M&A, but we did a lot of deals and I got some cool experiences out of it. I'm spending a lot of free time at school working on being a better modeler.
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General stats: 29, white american male, 3.6 in engineering at top-15 undergrad (+varsity athlete), engineering then strategy consulting then banking before b-school, now at a "fighting for top 10" - tier b-school.
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I would be shocked if large PE firms would let someone do something like this, and I don't fit their profile anyways. MM firms or single-office firms would be more appropriate targets.
Thanks for your thoughts-- very much appreciated.
