From MBB Consulting to PE

I can’t speak to the interest level across junior consultants generally, but as someone who was previously interested in PE before starting in consulting, I just don’t see the appeal anymore. Its hard to stay interested when tech firms and start ups pay really well, have much better WLB, and are more widely recognized as ‘prestigious’ by people outside of finance / professional services. I also think a large part of the appeal of PE for me, consciously or subconsciously, was that PE was the ‘king’ of industries in the sense that it is the most competitive, highest paying, and controls a large swath of the economy. Now, though, tech pays a lot and is dominating and transforming the economy, and has the added benefit of working literally half as much. That definitely makes PE seem less attractive by comparison.
 

Hell, I think the value of PE in my eyes has declined even if I decide not to work in tech. There’s something about knowing that some tech employees are going to make more than associates in PE for working way less hard that makes working in PE seem much less impressive. 

Every other day on this forum it seems like there’s a post talking about how much SWEs and data scientists at FAANG make, even though this site has nothing to do with tech. And the reason for that is that most people are interested in consulting and finance because they are the highest paying and the ‘best’ jobs, not because they have intrinsic interest in the work. Strip that away from them, and it’s no surprising that people would stop seeing the appeal
 

I also think WFH has a tendency to make people care less about competition and prestige, given that those drives are partially stoked by being physically around peers. In school I enjoyed competing against the people around me for jobs and career outcomes, but now I find it hard to care about competing with people I barely see and have mostly talked to over Zoom. A large part of the appeal of PE (especially for consultants, for whom it is a less ‘natural’ exit than it is for bankers) is competition and prestige, so an environment where those seem less important is one where PE seems less important. 
 

Again, that is just my own thoughts. But I imagine they are at least somewhat broadly reflected by the junior consultant population. In consulting forums (Fishbowl), FAANG is talked about the end all be all in terms of exits, and PE isn’t discussed nearly as much.