From M&A Buy-Side Advisory to IB Analyst to PE Associate

Hey everyone, this is my first post. I've been reading a few here and there and wanted some advice.

I've been work at a buy-side M&A advisory firm (for about 2 yrs) where I've primarily been sourcing deals and conducting industry research (like a broker). However, I'd love to get into a PE Associate role on the transaction/M&A side, not business development/deal origination. I can source but I don't want that to be all of what I do every day. I don't mind transactional Associate roles where part of the job is sourcing, as long as I get deal experience and can get involved and participate in the process.

So anyways, I spoke with a PE recruiter who suggested I get sell-side IB experience. Recently I've been talking to people over at UBS for an Analyst role at their PFG - Secondary Advisory group. I've also been contacted by Sawaya Segalas (interview with them in a couple of days) for an Analyst position. Keep in mind I'm coming from a non-target school and the firm I work at is not a "big name", although we've gotten surprisingly good deal flow in the past 2 years (of which, I was not directly part of).

So bottom line is - I wanted to know if you all think that working at the UBS PFG is a good way to "break" into PE for an M&A role? I noticed on the duties/responsibilities of the description that financial modeling is not of emphasis, so I was thinking that would take me even further away from my goals. However, UBS has a big name (at least relative to my shop right now) and this role would technically be in their IBD so I thought that could help?

Also, what are your thoughts when you compare UBS PFG to Sawaya Segalas in terms of exit opps into PE? Is there a "better" route to take? From what I've read, Sawaya looks to me as a place where I'll be doing more modeling, but it doesn't have the name that UBS has.

Any words of wisdom would be fantastic. I would be really appreciative for any comments that can clarify things for me.