Hi All,
I have a fair amount of free time before starting my MBA in the fall. This community has been extremely helpful for me since the time I was recruiting for internships years back, so I wanted to use the time to give back to those looking to break into the industry, to the extent possible. I'm happy to speak with anyone who would find it helpful, specifically on the following topics:
- Undergrads (only entering 2nd years and later please) looking to recruit for IB summer internships
- Interns thinking about bank / group placement options
- Full time analysts looking at buy-side opportunities (HF/PE)
As for my background, I was an intern and then full time analyst at GS/MS in NY, recruited for HF (though 95% of my peers went through the PE process), landed a few offers at different sized funds but ultimately decided to move into a private markets role outside of the US after realizing that the HF world probably wasn't the best fit for me (and that I wasn't a great public markets investor)
If this would be helpful please PM me. Or if you have more general questions that would be helpful for others, feel free to post them here and I’ll be happy to answer.
Cheers
I was looking at a combination of long only / long short funds. Around the time I was recruiting, a number of the larger shops shut down and there was a sort of decline, which I think has continued in asset allocation towards HF, with fewer and fewer generating alpha over a long period of time. I spoke to a number of people in the industry and my perspective on those roles really changed quite a bit -- I interacted with a lot of people who had hopped around from fund to fund (at some great places) and it offered a lifestyle and frankly stability level that I didn't think I'd be comfortable with. I also received a good amount of advice from alumni that was pretty negative with regard to investing in equities and trying to make a career out of it, so I'm sure that impacted my thinking to an extent. In terms of realizing I wasn't the strongest public markets investor, I had maintained a paper portfolio for about 3 years, was able to see the calls I made over that time. I think to succeed in one of these roles you need to have extreme conviction in your thesis and price target and have the stomach to see the markets ebb and flow (sometimes significantly) in the short term. I had a few 'buys' on stocks that had some underlying linkage to oil (utilities, airline leasing, etc). In the fall of 2015 oil prices fell through the floor (as did the aforementioned industry stock prices) and I think that was probably the final sign for me.
I was ultimately deciding between a few HF offers and the role I ended up pursuing, which was outside of the US. I was not at that time looking for the traditional PE experience, and I had been interested since I was in school in working abroad (studied international relations + history), so the role I took gave me the chance to do that.
I guess I should clarify, I moved to a non-US role where very little buyout activity took place and almost all the deal activity is primary capital put into the businesses, not a sort of Palo Alto tech focused growth equity shop. So in that sense more similar to a conventional PE role but without much (and often without any) leverage.
I was in a coverage group that did its M&A in house, so in that sense it was a fairly well rounded experience. At GS all the groups do in house M&A, and about half of the coverage groups at MS do as well. I looked at it as the best of both worlds, as we not only got a good understanding of an industry but also had the chance to work on different types of transactions, including financings. While the debt issuances aren't particularly exciting, I had the chance to pitch for and work on a few IPOs, which was quite interesting and fulfilling work.
Not at all, and I don't think most of my peers did either. I think those coming from an undergrad finance / business background tend to be more aware of these paths compared to others, for better or for worse. My group didn't have anyone from Wharton, Ross, Stern or any of those programs, so we all came in a bit blind. The 2nd years in our group were extremely helpful as far as recruiting, including providing recruiting materials, making us aware of all the HHs and which HH covered each fund, interview prep, etc.