Breaking into PIPE Practices in MC - Just PIPE dreams?
I've been interested in working in PE Consulting for some time, but I haven't had the chance to work close to the field (currently in eng. type role). I was thinking of creating a blog or portfolio to showcase my skillset (market resaerch, fin. modelling, company analysis) and how it applies to PE.
Aside from taking online courses to cover gaps, how can I cover the experience hurdle and would this be the best way to go about things?
I'm a little curious on this as well. Btw, nice joke with the "pipe" dream.
Does your firm have a PEG rotation? Depending on the answer I can advise. I used to be in a PEG group.
It does not, sadly...
Ok. No biggie. I'd start by finding a sympathetic junior or mid-level manager to talk you through the different workstreams of a CDD. I've written about them either here or on the reddit consulting firm so you could start with searching. Discuss the mechanics of a survey, model, and expert interviews and how it all comes together to inform competitive positioning, market structure and size, and potential strategy options for the acquired business.
Once you are knowledgeable I'd make a list of firms that have acceptable PEG practices. I wouldn't go beyond B4 + T2 + MBB candidly. LEK, OW, McKinsey, Bain: these are all good choices. Download a CRM for drip marketing like Outreach.io and start mass producing customized emails to as many people as relevant within these firms (e.g., Bain has millions of PEG partners so you might start with 5x emails there, whereas OW only has a few so you might start with 1x email).
From there just start having conversations and expressing interest in getting into PEG. Have a crisp story on why you like it (honestly I think being a PEG partner is one of the best careers imaginable and that's even after having tried a variety of investing roles). You could try to spin some expertise in your field to relevant partners but it's so different in terms of function I'd be careful there. Essentially just start churning out these calls and you'll get the ropes of how the conversations go and then ideally you'll start interviewing.
You can take two approaches. The first is, shoot for the stars. Take your calls with B4 PEG groups first and then move to T2 and then by then you'll hopefully be practiced and can crush some MBB interviews. Or the inverse; you're not confident in the switch so you want to burn your MBB to practice (the assumption being you will not get those jobs anyway) and then crush B4 / T2.
This should take you all in all 2-3 months if you get going now and are diligent with your efforts. The process is straight forward but you just need to have the discipline to execute. Consulting firms are starved for talent right now. Good luck.
I forgot to add: starting yesterday, you should start crushing cases as often as you can. Just from creative searching you can find casebooks from the consulting clubs from some of the top 5-10 UG institutions and top 7 MBAs. You should do a variety of cases to start but from there narrow in to general strategy including competitive positioning, market sizing, new market entry, GTM strategy, etc. And then ideally from your research and conversations with existing practitioners you can go the "extra mile" and be able to describe how you achieve these case insights (e.g., how you build a survey to gain the inputs needed to create a market model; this is one of many examples).
Instead of getting into "PE Consulting", I would reframe this as moving to a top-tier consulting firm. All of them have PE consulting practices, although Bain's is the largest by far.
So, from that perspective, anything that makes your resume noticeable to a recruiter or consultant at these firms is a good idea. Creating a blog or portfolio could be good if it gets traction because they like people who have successfully started initiatives on their own. I would take courses or get an advanced degree if these are well-known programs that place people into consulting, but doing a class to learn the skills of a PE consultant is totally not needed. Many people come into these jobs not even knowing what PE is, which is fine, as you will learn.
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