4 Comments
 

I think hiring has slowed down a good bit (in accordance with deal flow) but at the Analyst level it's not at all difficult to lateral up-market to a reputable MM firm. At the end of the day the fundamentals and processes are all the same regardless of how many zero's the calculations in your spreadsheet have. I would try and do it as an Analyst though - my assumption is you're mostly working on private market M&A deals with companies of that size. Once you get to the Associate level, firms may want you to have some public market or capital markets reps. 

 
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eggsbendending

Helpful! You're accurate in your assessment. Assuming I don't move up market then something like LMM PE is probably off limits, correct?

I don't think so at all. I came from a similar background doing sell-side M&A for private companies in the $25-75mm range and although I ultimately stuck with banking and joined a MM firm, various alumni of my firm went to PE shops managing $500M-$2.5B in capital. I interviewed for one with about $1.5B AUM, investing out of their second fund that closed at roughly $600M of equity. Also interviewed for two others that were between $500M-$1B AUM. Didn't get the job at the larger one because I botched the LBO case study and declined final rounds with the two others for other reasons but didn't feel that my background was the reason for the one I got dinged on. 

Going straight to UMM or MF would be unlikely but I think if you look hard enough and constantly apply to new gigs you could find a very solid LMM or MM PE firm that would consider you. Especially if there is sector overlap in what you cover and what the PE firm invests in.

Shit, I even got an interview request from a >$10B hedge fund, but they took so long to respond to my LinkedIn app I had already committed elsewhere. That one kinda hurt haha. I do believe that it helps that I was covering SaaS and had worked with a lot of clients in "hot" sectors for PE. Also definitely helped that I was recruiting during one of the biggest recruiting bonanzas of all time, mid-2021. 

 

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