Career Advice: Did Not Receive A Return Offer From VC
Hi everyone,
Looking for any and all advice as I am in a bit of tough position. For some background, I graduated last year from a non-target with a major in Philosophy and a minor in General Business. I was able to leverage my network and landed a 6 month internship with a small healthcare VC with ~100 AUM. Fast forward to the present day, I unfortunately did not receive a return offer. I was told this was because one of their analysts was returning from a portco and there would not be enough room in the budget to bring on another analyst. So I departed on good terms and received letters of recommendation from the partners.
Although this was a blow I am remaining optimistic and excited, but am still pretty lost. I've done tons of research on what the best next steps would be and have enrolled in courses to strengthen my modeling skills and to learn some coding to make myself a more desirable candidate. My interest in finance happened late in college(reasoning for my major choice), and the amount of different career paths you can take is pretty overwhelming when you're not familiar about what exactly they can entail/lead too.
To get to my question, I'm really just looking for a point in the right direction. I consider myself a creative person, and in the long run I'd like to create my own business concerning something I'm passionate about. However, I am realistic and I know that most business fail, so I'd like to have a solid foundation so that 1) It will help me develop into a capable entrepreneur, and 2) I could pursue some sort of High Finance role, which I do find intriguing, if I were to fail as an entrepreneur. I honestly am unsure about the weight that my internship will carry. I've been told that it it is not worth much, and that top financial institutions won't value it. It seems like I'm not the best candidate for a role in IB, Equity Research, or even staying in VC/any buy side role, so I am unsure if I should even be attempting to pursue these jobs. I've looked into Wealth Management and FP&A as well, but I just don't know what will give me the best career trajectory, what is realistically attainable, and just what the hell I should be doing right now to get back on track.
Apologies for the long post. I tried to fit everything in, and I can answer any questions you may have. I really would appreciate any advice you can offer. Thank you all in advance.
WSO automatically moved this post from the Job Search Advice Forum to the VC Forum so apologies if this doesn't belong here.
In somewhat of a similar boat
What exactly is the question?
Take a step back since this post is all over the place and giving generic advice based on the context you provided isn't going to be actionable. At the early stage of your career you should be focusing on these three questions with the goal of learning as much as possible in your next role.
1. What types of problems do I enjoy solving?
2. What skills am I naturally predisposed towards developing?
3. What am I categorically bad at?
For each of these roles that you're considering, map out their requirements and see if it aligns with your answers here.
Example: VC
1. The challenges of VC relate to pattern matching, gaining people's trust, and gaining conviction with minimal data -- Do I like these types of problems?
2. The role demands someone who's skilled at building interpersonal relationships, can evaluate markets, and communicate with a high level of clarity and confidence -- Are these skills I want to develop?
3. You will fail in this role if you don't like interacting with people, you're highly pessimistic, require lots of information before making a decision, and aren't comfortable with ambiguity -- Do these line up with my shortcomings?
Finally, take a deep breath and realize that your first full time job is often times not a good indicator of your long-term path. The most successful people often have a non-linear path, so focus on learning and building strong relationships. Those two components compound over time.
I'm far from successful but interned in HF throughout college, started out FT in equity research at a low-tier bank, went to VC, and ultimately quit to found a start up.
I re-read your post hence the edit. Got confused when you added all those different job titles in, you say you want to start your own business but are risk averse.
Makes sense, most startups fail. Venture Capital is one of the best areas to get exposure to startups without assuming all the risk - this will be from a finance and due diligence perspective. You will look at startups as an investor.
Other good relevant experience outside of VC is in the operations side. You will get this by directly working for a startup or by going into consulting. But it will be with a small boutique consulting firm, not one of the big MBB juggernauts.
Lastly, pull the trigger on a startup if you see a problem and have a solution. Build an MVP, create pitch decks, and market your idea to VCs. You will get on their radar and even if the business fails you will have a story to tell. The unfortunate truth is that the last path is only available if you are not being buried by student debt and can swing a a year or so being unpaid.
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