36 Comments
 

CFA, for, PE?

[quote]The HBS guys have MAD SWAGGER. They frequently wear their class jackets to boston bars, strutting and acting like they own the joint. They just ooze success, confidence, swagger, basically attributes of alpha males.[/quote]
 
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Why would you turn down a banking internship to do negotiations firstly if your end goal was PE? Wasn't a wise call. Anyway, the CFA is of no help when it comes to PE related buyside recruiting. Hedge funds will probably give it some weight, but PE funds could care less. They'd rather see the 2-yrs of slave experience you go through on the sell side than certifications such as the CFA.

Unless you're at Wharton or are aiming for a PE fund in Oklahoma, your chances of entering PE directly are slim to none and that's the cold truth. Build up your resume to lock down a sell-side position first; you can then give networking a shot to see how far you'll get with a PE fund.

 

Call me a douche but with a 3.6 and coming from Wisconsin you have a very limited chance.

Get an offer from a BB bank now why they are in hiring season, then keep fighting for a PE offer (they don't finish hiring by end of october like a lot of banks). If you ever get a PE offer then burn a bridge, renig on the bank, and enjoy.

"If you want to succeed in this life, you need to understand that duty comes before rights and that responsibility precedes opportunity."
 
TheBigBambinoCall me a douche but with a 3.6 and coming from Wisconsin you have a very limited chance.

Get an offer from a BB bank now why they are in hiring season, then keep fighting for a PE offer (they don't finish hiring by end of october like a lot of banks). If you ever get a PE offer then burn a bridge, renig on the bank, and enjoy.

i dont know how much i agree with the first statement since there are literally hundreds of midwestern mid-market PE-type firms.

 

Here's an add on -- let's say you go into private equity right out of college but the fund has a very specific focus like energy, or infrastructure -- if you want to eventually branch out into other spaces of investing (not only PE but special situations, growth [private and public], does skipping banking make it more complicated?

mind you -- this is coming from someone who wants to eventually run their own fund some day (who deosn't right lol?)

 
ColumbiaKid123Here's an add on -- let's say you go into private equity right out of college but the fund has a very specific focus like energy, or infrastructure -- if you want to eventually branch out into other spaces of investing (not only PE but special situations, growth [private and public], does skipping banking make it more complicated?

mind you -- this is coming from someone who wants to eventually run their own fund some day (who deosn't right lol?)

I am trying to do this now (started out in Real Estate PE, trying to branch out after 2 years).

I'm finding its pretty difficult since a lot of people don't know what to do with your company's name if they've never heard of it / any deals you've done because they're not in that sector. Also, seeing "small firm x" vs. "bulge bracket firm y" is a quick way to skip through the massive # of resumes they get.

I have an added wrinkle of being on West Coast and not NYC based just as an FYI

 

Most PE's don't recruit actively. It is way tougher to land a PE internship than an IB internship. Plus, most PE's don't recruit fresh from university.

Again, it's most PE's, there might always be exceptions. They just to prefer to hire from IB's in general.

PE analyst and IB analyst might get the same comp, maybe the PE dude even gets a little less. The big difference comes in once you get the carry.

 

No. I really think the skills, both tangible and intangible, that are picked up in an analyst stint are highly valuable. And you can't ignore the obvious reality that it is probably the best starting place to launch a career in finance.

"They are all former investment bankers that were laid off in the economic collapse that Nancy Pelosi caused. They have no marketable skills, but by God they work hard."
 

Hard skills that are tough to force yourself to learn on your own and as in depth. Also shows toughness and ability to deal with shithole environments. Lastly and least important is good paycheck post college.

 
leveredarbIf you don't think you can make it in pe /hf then yeah banking is a waste of time.
That's what I was wondering. I wonder if a lot of analysts at a mediocre groups that didn't get PE/HF offer and got jobs that they could've gotten without banking severely regret their decision to pursue banking.
 

Banking is a waste of time if you enjoy cold calling 42 year old men in Ohio who make 75,000 a year, and you want to manage his 50,000 IRA for a couple hundred bucks in fees, so that you can feel you serve a purpose, when you're actually doing harm to your clients, because you don't have a clue what you're doing and lack all credibility after scraping by at a low-tier school.

 
BTbankerBanking is a waste of time if you enjoy cold calling 42 year old men in Ohio who make 75,000 a year, and you want to manage his 50,000 IRA for a couple hundred bucks in fees, so that you can feel you serve a purpose, when you're actually doing harm to your clients, because you don't have a clue what you're doing and lack all credibility after scraping by at a low-tier school.

I didn't say the Banking industry was a waste of time. I just asked if working your ass off in college to get an analyst stint and working like a dog is a waste of time if you don't plan on working in HF or PE in the long run, because there are many other jobs post undergrad that can open doors to M7 MBA. Pretty simple....

 
DoctorAndre
BTbankerBanking is a waste of time if you enjoy cold calling 42 year old men in Ohio who make 75,000 a year, and you want to manage his 50,000 IRA for a couple hundred bucks in fees, so that you can feel you serve a purpose, when you're actually doing harm to your clients, because you don't have a clue what you're doing and lack all credibility after scraping by at a low-tier school.

I didn't say the Banking industry was a waste of time. I just asked if working your ass off in college to get an analyst stint and working like a dog is a waste of time if you don't plan on working in HF or PE in the long run, because there are many other jobs post undergrad that can open doors to M7 MBA. Pretty simple....

Believe it or not... Investment Banking can be a lifelong career, and not everyone leaves after 2 years.
 

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