Chicago IB -> SF PE?

Has anyone heard of people moving from chicago IB to reputable SF PE shops?

I'm joining a top chicago bank/group for full time and am interested in exploring SF for PE opportunities

10 Comments
 

Yes, get in touch with West Coast focused headhunters and in general let headhunters know your city preference. By default they will ask you where you want to be.

 
ledger123

all the time. shouldnt be a problem.

Thanks for the response. Is it difficult to get interviews at the top PE funds in SF from Chicago (top group/firm)? Or will my options mostly be limited to mid and lower-level PE shops?

 

For some reason, buyside firms in SF seem to do a fair bit of recruiting outside of the west coast (i.e. in Chicago, NYC, etc.). On the other hand, cities like NYC and Chicago seem to do more recruiting from analysts in those cities; NYC is self-explanatory since there are a ton of analysts, and Chicago seems much more insular in the way that many of the firms recruit. That's just kind of my gut feel, so I may be totally off base.

Oh, and I know you didn't ask about it, but Boston is kind of like SF like that too...

 
CHItizen

For some reason, buyside firms in SF seem to do a fair bit of recruiting outside of the west coast (i.e. in Chicago, NYC, etc.). On the other hand, cities like NYC and Chicago seem to do more recruiting from analysts in those cities; NYC is self-explanatory since there are a ton of analysts, and Chicago seems much more insular in the way that many of the firms recruit. That's just kind of my gut feel, so I may be totally off base.

Oh, and I know you didn't ask about it, but Boston is kind of like SF like that too...

Does SF actually target Chicago for recruiting though? I was under the impression that they focused only on SF+NY

 
CHItizen

Let me rephrase - it's hard to generalize all SF PE firms, but there are certainly some upper MM SF PE firms that actually have first round interviews in Chicago (which is highly unusual).

Ah okay thanks. Do you know which upper MM SF firms in particular have done first round interviews in Chicago?

 
Best Response

I think it was Gryphon or Genstar (I remember one firm starting with a "G", but don't think it was Golden Gate), along with some others potentially. Honestly, it's been a while since I went through PE recruiting and I never really looked at SF, so I'm trying to go off my memory of what friends/other analysts told me during a hectic time from a while back... Sorry.

Obviously, there's also a large VC/Growth Equity presence out west as well, which you might look into if that's your cup of tea. I never did, so can't comment too much on that other than to say that I knew a few guys from Chicago who made it out there in a VC/Growth Equity role, so there's at least some recruiting in this space.

 

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