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People go into banking for many reasons, and there is certainly that bucket of people who want to end up at a PE/HF shop eventually. For those people, banking gives them 1) training and 2) experience. You can equate a stint at a BB like financial bootcamp--you are going to get your ass kicked, its going to be hard, and at times, you may feel as though you will never see the light of day again. However, the experience is unparalleled and no other position will provide you with that experience. My friends in the PE/HF world have told me that they usually prefer kids coming out of banking programs bc they are trained and have the deal experience, but there is certainly a small number of people who go directly into these shops and do very well. I think this will depend very much on your background (school, past experience etc.) and the shop you work at.
You are correct in your assumptions (as far as I know), the smaller firms with unstructured programs will not have any formal training. I am not really sure about the hands-on experience though. Ideally, you would think that leaner deal teams means more responsibility and thus greater experience. Historically this may have been the case, but I have heard from an number of undergrads interning at various PE shops that they are doing a whole lot of nothing right now, given that the market is so shitty. Keep this in mind when making your decisions.
You can also think like this: breaking into PE is harder than staying in!!! So, if you have a chance to join as an intern, you have solid chances to join full time, if you do well. I am hearing on these boards, that those without PE experience can hardly get a job in PE post-MBA. All in all, I would go with PE in case it is a legit job and you will be able to stay there for at least 3 years full time. Then MBA, then back to PE. You might learn a lot in BB banking, but what is it worth when you cannot transition to PE after 2 years??? And being in BB banking is far from being a guarantee that you can get into PE. If PE is your ultimate goal, why pass on the opportunity to join a shop early on???
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