Specialize in private capital or stay generalist?
I'm starting at a T2 late summer/early fall of 2025 and have the chance to enter as a specialist in private capital or a generalist.
Here are my primary decision criteria (I'm seeking advice from people at the firm as well, just want to hear opinions from those at other firms/people who don't have an incentive to get new hires in their practice):
1. Learning/development (PC is more intense/fast paced, and would start 3 months earlier. This is kinda big because I've been delayed since Fall '24. However, I'd be less exposed to strategy projects)
2. Exit opportunities (I'm interested in maximizing my chances for a PE ops role down the line while maintaining other options, ex corp strat, as I don't know what I want 100%)
What are your thoughts on the best path? I'm concerned that T2 private capital will be mainly focused on CDD, which is decent if you want to do investing. However, I'm interested in the ops side, and wonder if a generalist role would give better exposure/same exit ops despite not working with PE clients.
I got allocated to a PE project while in my Summer Internship at an MBB firm. From what I experienced, CDDs are the focus of the vast majority of the projects. I do believe that it is possible to gain PE ops skills while working on CDDs. However, the project dynamics are way different from a Generalist project. In the PE practice you are required to produce a large number of slides in a short time. Hence, reusing slides and material from previous projects is quite common. You don't get to craft frameworks from scratch nor layout the implementation phase, as opposed to most Generalists projects.
That being said, both departments can provide you with the skillset and platform to pivot to PE Ops. It all comes down to how you play your cards. Hope it helps!
Thanks for the insights, man! Just wondering, are you a full time staff member at this point? Have you seen people make the pivot to PE Ops from generalist and PE specific practices?
Yes, I'm currently a BA. Most PE Ops jobs tend to have generalists and consultants specialised in implementation.
Most PE ops roles don't go to people with lots of CDD experience but rather people with functional / operational experience. OW (the only firm that uses the term private capital) is also relatively sub-scale in DDs (compared to other T2s like LEK, EYP, S& that have much more of a focus) and apparently is more of a sweatshop than your average PE practice. The learning is faster (because of short timelines and need to learn quickly about a niche business) but usually tapers off after a while as you are doing the same project & few workstreams over and over (interviews, model, survey, ...) without much exposure to stakeholder management or other functional topics
I appreciate the insights. So is it fair to say a generalist would, on average, build a better toolkit for PE ops than a PC specialist? Also, have you heard how easy/hard it is at OW to do a rotation in PC as a generalist? I've received mixed signals.
In your case I'd do generalist, if you have good reason to believe it'll actually be strategy projects and not getting shoehorned into something lame
1. PE Ops is all about cost management / transformation / making hard strategy decisions / running a company in a way that's more similar to non-CDD projects. CDDs are great experience for investing but less so for operational roles
2. CDDs suck lifestyle wise. No reason to go through that intensity unless you want to do something more buyside investing related
I would think by prioritizing networking + trying to build a reputation for doing good work/being a team player I could maximize my exposure to interesting strategy projects. It seems OW does have some less desirable projects as well, but can be an excellent experience if you are staffed well. Obviously there is randomness + politics involved, maybe I'm overestimating my agency.
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