Dear all,
I am coming to the end of the analyst program at an ibank, and I would like to exit to the buy-side. I have two interviews this week 1) Internal M&A for a fortune 500 company 2) PE Fund. I would rate prestige for both as good, the fortune 500 company is relatively large where I can gain good exposure. The PE fund is also relatively large, MM. Although I don't have any offers yet, I think it would be a good strategy to know which I would prefer. I know the obvious, salary will probably be higher in PE, more hours... while F500 will have better hours, corporate culture, and less pay... however, I believe I will gain more broad experience at the F500 with the current setup (very very small team)...as opposed to PE where I will be one of many analysts (so probably gain more experience in specific areas).
The question is as follows: What would you guys choose? If I change my mind in 1-2 years, do you think it would be easier to move from PE into internal M&A, or vice-versa?
I understand the promotion and pay trajectory will be slower with internal M&A - but better work/life balance.
Any thoughts would be appreciate.
I have met a few internal M&A people from a "Fortune 10" company, who jumped ship from Wall Street banks. They simply love where they are right now. Their pays are decent and, as you said, they now have work/life balance. In addition, they told me that your internal M&A experience should make you standout from others who simply went from BB to PE. At the time, one of them was moving out of the "Fortune 10" company to HBS/Stanford. He thinks that business schools appreciate this "unique" route. Also, I would imagine PE shops appreciate "industry experience/knowledge/internal contacts" as well.
If I were you, I might try out the "internal M&A" route. It seems very interesting and rewarding.
Its an interesting time to be making this decision. I think strategics rather than PE shops have a significant advantage given the current financing market (although it continues to improve) and public market currency and will drive M&A over the course of the next year. With that said, I still think the PE fund opp (assuming similar level of prestige) is the better choice for you at this point in your career. What are you pussies talking about work/life balance? Think about work/life balance when you have kids and want to coach their little league teams. You should be grinding right now and making shit happen. I think the network you will build and the exposure to various industries and deal types makes the PE shop more interesting. I guess it really depends on your future goals. I think it will be more difficult to jump from corp. M&A to PE rather than the other way around. Good luck.
Thank you so much for your input guys... any other suggestions from others are still welcomed :)
Internal M&A might be better for B-School but PE would leave you with more exit options. Plus I've spoken to people in these Internal M&A groups at F100 firms and while the work/life balance might be good, they complain that the work can be limiting and tedious at times. Fuck work/life balance anyways. Only think about it if you're 30+, plus if its a MM PE shop, work/life balance can't be that bad anyways.
Any more comments? :)
honestly...for me, it would 100% depend on what industries both operate in.
I would love to work for Disney's Corp Dev team (childish...i know :D), so I'd take that over almost any PE offer (with a slight consideration for salary). Outside of a couple other interesting industries I like, I would take PE.
Mind divulging industry info?
PE is where it's at, work/life balance is for consultants
I think IB + PE + MBA offers a broader range of exit ops vs IB + CorpDev + MBA.
My $.02
what did you pick??
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