Mezz to Private Equity?

I'm a 1st year analyst in the mezzanine debt investing arm of a MM PE firm, which I joined straight out of undergraduate. My current responsibilities include reading CIMs, diligencing potential investments, building credit models and portfolio monitoring.

I'm interested in control investing, both traditional PE buyout and also distressed for control; however, since I never did an investment banking stint, how limited are my options? I'm not interested in MF PE (seems impossible to break into without banking anyways), but even outside being a master of the universe, it seems most people come from banking/consulting. Would it be easier to attempt to lateral to an analyst position or continue with my current job and recruit into an associate position at a PE shop? Also interested in hearing anecdotally what some common exits from mezz investing are or if it even is common to leave. Thanks!

 
Best Response

I would echo what spyvspyder said. I recently had a chat with a partner and principal at a pan European fund. They both recommended that you spend as little time as possible on the debt side and try to jump to a position on the equity side as soon as an opportunity arises/as soon as you make an opportunity arise through your network. It will probably be easier to find an associate position once you have got some deals under your belt, but I see nothing wrong with switching to PE after a year, if you can find a job. It's definitely doable and not an uncommon path!

 

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