I know PE MF would probably be a very long shot, but how about UMM/MM PE, as well as GE/VC/HF? Mostly interested in MM HF or MM (although ideally UMM) PE. Finally, does being in a "top" Toronto group like RBC M&A or BMO Metals & Mining make things easier?
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del
Canada is the geographical equivalent to being backoffice. There are literally zero exits from Canada. No, Blackstone Special Opps team does not want some pasty huckster from a Canadian natural resources group as their next Associate hire.
Weren't you talking about choosing banks based on the moistness of their analysts just a week ago?
Bump
Some girl made it to HIG from BMO. Generally highly unlikely tho. Lateral to a BB/EB first
No better place to be than Moelis Toronto, Ken's favourite office.
Plausible, but not easy.
As others have mentioned, I agree in that it would be very difficult for someone to get into US buyside coming from Toronto/Canada. I am sure it has happened in the past, but those instances are probably few and far between.
If you think of it from the US buyside firm's perspective, there are already a plethora of qualified candidates in the US, why would they need to look outside the US and then also have to potentially deal with work visa related issues too? I think your best shot to work in US buyside is to move to the US to work in IB there first (e.g. switch to the NYC office if you are in Toronto) and then recruit for US buyside.
If you are adamant about staying in Canada to do IB, it will be tough regardless of where you are. However I think it would be best to aim for US banks with Canadian offices (i.e. Goldman, BAML, Morgan Stanley, Evercore, Greenhill, etc.) as they have better name recognition in the US vs. the Canadian big 5 banks for recruiters, buyside firms, etc.
If you end up working in one of the Canadian big 5 banks, then yes I am sure working in a top group would be looked upon more favourably then other groups. However given Canada's heavy exposure to mining, if you end up in a mining group/have a lot of mining experience, it might be difficult to recruit for non-natural resource buyside opportunities as you will need a good story as to why you want to switch out of natural resources as it is a very different industry then what a lot of typical buyside firms look at. On the flipside, there are some natural resource buyside firms in the US like Resource Capital, Energy & Minerals Group, Orion Resource Partners, etc. where I am sure experience at BMO metals & mining would be looked upon favourably, but there are way more non-natural resource buyside firms.
I would also recommend you scour LinkedIn to see if you can find people that have done the transition from Toronto to US buyside and reach out to see if they have any advice on how to make the switch.
Separate to this, you should also make a decision on what kind of buyside opportunity you want to do as recruiting for buyout PE is very different than growth equity vs. VC vs. hedge funds. I would pick one of them to focus on and start networking with folks in that industry and finding the recruiting firms that those buyside firms use to try to get a leg in.
Thanks corp dev
Someone recently made it to Silver Point from CPP. Others to HIG and Oaktree. On the sell side, we’ve seen moves from Big 5 to Moelis, Evercore, Goldman. And some hardo folks made it to top buyside out of undergrad after a Canadian summer internship: KKR, Blackstone, and GoldenTree.
Yes these placements are sparse, no you shouldn’t bank on this being your outcome. But if you couldn’t place anywhere but Canada, then don’t lose hope.
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