There's plenty on this site about how well top banks, elite boutiques and some top groups place into PE but what about analysts at places like CS/Citi/Barcap?
Do you have the same access to headhunters? How much more difficult is it to go from one of those banks to a megafund or a top mm fund?
Looking at associates on top pe firm websites seems like majority are from GS/MS type places...
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My group over the summer at C/CS/JPM level firm: 4 second year analysts, one TPG, one Warburg, one Catterton, one Ares
Other groups at my firm placed 0 into PE.
Bottom line: at BB level, depends a lot more on group and how good you are than whether you're from GS/MS.
I think headhunters, like banks, have a "target" list of firms/groups they reach out to first like GS/MS and the elite boutiques, but you can certainly get into a top PE fund from CS/Barcap as well
I think you're fairly fine if you go to a bulge bracket or elite boutique, although I haven't seen as much Citi, BAML and BarCap. I think the dropoff occurs when you hit Jefferies, Houlihan, Perella Weinberg, etc. Not sure where all those guys go, there aren't that many spots for all those bankers.
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