Is it impossible to lateral into a Financial Sponsors group without direct experience

Hi Monkeys,

Currently a second year analyst trying to switch coverage groups by lateralling. Is it impossible to switch into the sponsors group if I'm coming from something more niche such as REGAL / FIG / NatRes? I also have LBOs in my deals closed (or closing).

But I've heard that 1) it's hard to switch groups if you're lateralling externally and 2) people never leave the cool FSG groups (high deal flow and executes the deals themselves) so it's almost impossible to lateral into there. Not to mention I have to compete against internal hires with more goodwill too.

Have yall seen any transition like described? Thanks!

15 Comments
 

EBITDAWrangler

I feel like there are better exit opportunities outside of FSG (traditional M&A)? I'm going FT pretty soon into a MM FSG so I would love to hear your insight on this. I was thinking of starting to recruit pretty soon for some BB's but I wanted to see how I liked it FT for the first 6-12 months. 

I was in an FSG group that did literally nothing. Didn't hold pen for model or do any of the live deal stuff. All we did was making a few FSG overview slides for pitches and that's it. Would avoid these groups at all costs. As an analyst I really wanted to learn, and I understood that if I get laid off from those type of FSG groups, I would be skill-less and uncompetitive for re-recruiting. I didn't want to be a fraud VP (who are A2A2VP in that group) either.

 

At some banks, FSG is a top-tier group and at others FSG does nothing. The issue with FSG is knowing which banks is which.

 

Think it's a combination of 1) only wanting a single, niche group and thus few spots to begin with and 2) those spots will go to people with experience, internal laterals or those from desirable coverage areas

I would open up your coverage preferences to be broader. 

thank you! How hard is it for me to upgrade (going from MM to BB and EB) from a niche group to a generic group like consumer / hc / industrials / lev fin / m&a?

When I'm talking to HHs and networking, I only get responses if the opportunity / person is in the same niche group as the one that I'm in.

 

bumping. if strictly optimizing for PE exits, do you think it would be better to shoot for M&A groups or execution-handling sponsors groups?

 

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