MBB-->MBA (H/S/W)--> PE
Any insight on the following career path?
MBB-->MBA (H/S/W)--> PE
My ideal plan would be to stay at my MBB for 3 years, go for a top MBA (H/S preferred), then go to a MM or smaller shop near my hometown. I have heard that it is quite difficult to make the jump into a megafund post-MBA without prior PE experience, but how about MMPE and smaller funds?
Thanks
I've seen it done by personal acquaintances both from my MBB and from the competition. Switching to a MM shop seems relatively easy, it helps to have something to offer though, eg. turnaround/distressed experience for a special situations shop or industry expertise for an industry-specific fund. All those guys went to H/S/W too.
I also know a guy who went to KKR of all things, with no experience other than 2 years at MBB followed by HBS, though these cases seeem to be rare (I've only seen it this one time). And it was in Europe - no idea if it's possible to do in the US (though I imagine it's not too hard to move within KKR later on).
If you're only starting out at an MBB you can also consider going PE before MBA - not only it is easier to do (esp. megafund), it would also give you more optionality post-MBA in case you don't like PE. And this is not a theoretical concern, PE is not an end-all be-all career - I've seen people go to PE, not like it and move to something else. Or to another fund with a strategy they thought they'd like more - which you can't really know before you try.
Thanks, this is super helpful.
I will give you a different opinion that the one above, having worked in MM PE and attending one of the schools you mentioned. Switching to PE without prior experience is hard, and getting harder as PE becomes even more institutionalized.
You have an enormous hurdle to demonstrate that you understand the PE, and more generally, the M&A process. You can learn it, but you'll be competing against people that done it their whole career (if they did IB->PE) and have prior PE experience. My experience in PE was much more similar to IB than consulting. Since as a post-MBA hire you'll be driving and managing the M&A and diligence process, knowing it cold and how it works is essential.
I would strongly advise you to do the traditional associate route before attending business school. It will make post-MBA recruiting much easier and generally give you much more credibility. Frankly, I think the career management office at each of H/S/W would tell you the same thing (certainly my school would).
Feel free to DM me if you have more questions.
Thanks for your insight.
As a quick question on a tangent, would doing MBB>Pre-MBA hurt your admissions into B-school? Make it better? Or the same?
I am concerned doing a pre-MBA stint will hurt my chances at a top MBA vs coming straight from MBB.
I don't know, I wish I did. My hunch (and I stress hunch, because I honestly have no idea) is that there are more MBB than PE applicants (and both buckets are very competitive, regardless). I would think if you're going to a reputable firm then it probably helps, because another "prestige" organization has vetted you in addition to your consulting firm. In any case, I'm not really sure how doing MBB -> PE would hurt your chances for business school. That seems like a pretty "gold" path to me, but again, I'm not an admissions person, and (I can't stress this enough), I don't actually know what I'm talking about when it comes to admissions.
Your name indicates Miami. There aren't too many decent sized PE firms there outside of HIG and below that the options are pretty limited. I can't remember the names but there are a few small ones down near Coral Gables and some up in Ft Lauderdale and the West Palm area but they're small and I would highly doubt regularly bring people on. I may be missing a couple on Brickell though.
If you get into Harvard or Stanford and want to get into lower MM shops there's a decent shot even if you don't have pre MBA experience just because rarely do people go from hbs into a $700MM fund but if my assumption about the 305 is correct the options are limited. Why not try to go from MBB to PE pre-MBA? That combined with H/S would open nearly any door you want. If you're fluent in Spanish there may be some other cool opps in Miami though.
Thanks for the tips. No connection to Miami, however.
It's just not true that people from HBS don't go into middle market funds (e.g. $700M). There are tons of them. It's hard to make the jump to PE without pre mba experience because as a post-mba you probably come in at the VP level and have to pretty much manage the deal process completely. Hard to see how you could do that effectively with little experience in M&A and no understanding of things like LBO modeling etc. People under you may do the heavy lifting but you certainly need to understand everything and be able to add value. MBB is great experience but it's not that seamless a transition to PE especially on the deal side when you get deep into financials and diligence.
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