MBB's PE consulting practice --- how's recruiting for experienced people?

As the title goes. Right now I am doing some financial modeling work for PE clients, in the project finance space, and I have been thinking about where I want to go after a year or two. Traditionally, I thought about getting into LevFin, or debt advisory side of investment banking, or directly to my client's side --- although I am not exactly sure how feasible that would be. Today i was talking to a friend of mine who is preparing for MC recruiting, and he suggested that maybe I could take a look at MBB's PE consulting --- I know Bain has its own PE and I checked out McKinsey and BCG's PE consulting page. Seems interesting. Would appreciate insight regarding how recruiting of this group goes and what's the daily job like, if my background in financial modeling and some deal advisory could be transferable into it. Thanks a lot.

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A lot of the work in PE consulting has to do with commercial due diligences, and a modelling background here is not as useful as you might think. It will help you model markets/ conduct thorough analyses on e.g. survey/ online traffic data, but you are unlikely to provide valuation advice.

Regarding recruiting at the entry-level (post-UG and directly post-MBA), you typically do not recruit specifically into these groups. You would rather enter as a generalist and then try to get on such engagements. There are exceptions here and there, but do not count on it. It is, however, a good thing to mention a strong interest in the field as Bain does tons of it and the other MB want to be competitive in PE as well.

Daily work usually involves longer hours than non-PE consulting (I would add ~8-10 hours per week) doing:

  • Market modelling
  • Expert interviews
  • Technology assessments (if relevant)
  • Survey design and analysis
  • Further research on competitors, etc.

Team members tend to work somewhat independently on their topic with touchpoints a couple times a day to realign priorities and share key findings. Such engagements last on average 3 weeks.

 

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