Switching from public markets to private?

I’ve been in L/S for around 8 years mostly in one sector. I’ve spent the most of my career at single managers but gave the multi manager thing a try too (and failed). I’ve come to the point where the money has become pretty meh (AUM outflows etc) while the stress has remained the same. The fact the market seems to have been entirely macro and factor driven the past few years has further sucked the life out of any interest I had in this career (admittedly I might just be bad at it).

Any way I have been considering realistic exits. I would ideally like to switch to private equity or similar given the core part of the job is one I enjoy (looking at and evaluating businesses). Has anyone seen this done? Many of the VP jobs I’ve seen require decent level of PE experience while I fear I’m too old to be trying for an associate job.

Any advice more generally from folks who have gone through a transition out of the hedge fund world is also helpful

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