**Background**
Hey WSO, I've been a longtime lurker (for some advice, but also for the laughs) and thought it's probably time to contribute back (as I also have something somewhat valuable to contribute now). Some general background about how I got where I am below:
* Target undergrad (top 20 university)
* Summer intern at EB IB (received return offer)
* Returned FT at EB IB and stayed for one year before transitioning to MM PE
* Stayed several years at MM PE before ultimately moving on to do Strategy in-house at an established start-up (>$1bn valuation)
**Q&A**
I remember reading on the forums when I was in school to see what working in the industry was really like or getting a few laughs once I started working. Happy to answer any questions about my experience (hopefully it's somewhat different than the traditional path), whether that's the recruiting process (IB or PE), on-the-job advice, reasons for switching careers, etc.
Thanks for the AMA! Your path almost exactly what I'm considering, and it sounds like you've had similar thoughts around the move (comp, success rate of the startup, etc.) - so glad you made the decision. Would definitely love to hear your thoughts on the following:
How did you end up getting to MM PE after a year of banking (and coming in as an associate?) considering the structured recruitment process of the industry? Why did you leave? Did you have any regrets about not finishing out your 2-year program?
How many years did you stay at your PE firm? Was there a path upward if you wanted to take it?
How was your experience in PE firm? What you liked / disliked about the job?
3.5 What learned skills you felt were most useful coming out of this experience?
4.5 Did you have an idea of moving in-house before you started PE? What were your rationale for this?
How did you ultimately find this opportunity?
What were your thoughts around leaving PE for strategy, and ultimately got you comfortable with all the potential "upside" you might be leaving? (Esp if you have friends who thought you should stay in PE)?
What do you do in your current role? How has your role changed as you worked at the firm?
Skills one needed to have for your role, or to be able to communicate properly to the firm founders? What made you stand out? I'm assuming there aren't that many spots available nor many people applying for these opportunities with similar backgrounds, but please correct me if I'm wrong.
What is your typical day like?
What you like/dislike about this job? What did you find surprising about your current role that you didn't expect coming in?
What are your thoughts about next steps? Stay with the firm until IPO?
Know I've put a lot of questions here, but really looking forward to hearing your thoughts! Thank you again!
Wow! Lots of questions, but all excellent. I'll preface here to say I'll be light around on details for a few of these as I'd like to keep my anonymity - the finance community is quite small.
I had actually seen several people in the industry do this when I did my summer internship, so I knew it wasn't impossible. However, I didn't go through any formal process. I actually followed a partner from my firm that I worked closely with. At the time, I will say I was pretty eager about the transition (still lived under the allure of being in banking) but I don't regret it - had a fulfilling experience working on interesting types of transactions. Looking back, I think because I was at an EB, I would've had a good shot at recruiting for a MF (if that was something I wanted). You just have to weigh your options at that point.
Don't want to be too specific here, but 4 years (take that how you will). There was an opportunity for me to advance, at my choosing.
Overall, I think my experience was very worthwhile. I got to grow with a job and eventually was able to test out things to figure out what I enjoyed and disliked. I also think the work/life balance was fairly reasonable - became autonomous and had a say in my own schedule.
Things I liked: Exposure to highly impactful people with specific expertise (partners, strategic advisors, management teams), developing process and critical thinking skills (understanding how to incentivize/move parties along and thinking strategically about the position we held), almost (if not all) the transactions I looked at were interesting to me (whether that was the sector or type of transaction we were doing).
Things I didn't like: The biggest thing for me was always thinking of the minimum return threshold and what the downside case could be. Understandable, we are investing to make a return and need to know in the worst case scenario, will we meet our hurdle. However, it just gets less and less exciting when a lot of what you're working on surrounds this. Ultimately, I made the move in-house with the belief that I'd be building towards a goal and that was the focus (not disregarding the risks/downside, but that's not what the focus of my work would be on).
3.5 Critical/strategic thinking, effective communication, interpersonal relationships
4.5 Before PE, didn't really think about anything tbh. I was a banker and basically everyone wanted to do a 2+2 somewhere so I just looked at the next "2" as another checkmark to get. Eventually decided I wanted to move to strategy through my experiences in PE (working with PortCos, wanting to build something).
Referral through a friend.
Answered in a post above on my thought process/concerns about switching. In reality, I was actually more concerned about skipping out on b-school than leaving PE. The "upside" I was missing out on in PE wasn't too important to me - I knew early on I'd never really want to be a partner (thought process here is that the eventual next move would be to raise your own fund and I think that's where the train stops for me).
Haven't been here long so difficult to say how it's changed. I've talked on another post what my role entails. I'll always be intimately familiar with the company's health and forecast, but I'm focused on helping other stakeholders think about the impact of their strategies and how to execute (competitive analysis, pricing or market funnel analyses, unit economics, etc., even headcount optimization). It's a lot of different hats but essentially the finance team in general is to be the beacon of truth in the whole company.
Skills I learned noted above. I think this is usual for most jobs a couple years out, your technical abilities shouldn't be questioned (i.e., modeling). People are more interested in understanding if you've gained experiences and developed critical thinking skills that would be value-add to what they are already thinking. It's a mix of being able to think deep and a step beyond what is asked - like if a product makes you a + ROI, how should you scale? Technically (from a book), you'd scale as much as you could until the ROI is zero (no incremental benefit), but in reality, you scale based on how the business is constrained (headcount/ops, facilities available, liquidity/financing, etc.).
I think I stood out in my interviews by having 1. a non-traditional path, 2. differentiated experiences and 3. ability to critically think about a problem.
Hours: Arrive around 9, leave by 7 (typically). Normal day starts out by checking emails and responding to those with the highest priority + getting coffee, walk around/chat before setting up for the rest of my day. I'll spend the majority of my days doing a project (modeling, research, building a deck, etc.) before going to a team meeting or meeting with the stakeholder to discuss progress, assumptions, questions, etc. Wrap my day up by either sharing finished product or just sending quick notes to ppl noting the progress of things.
Nothing I dislike so far. The biggest thing I found surprising was how intelligent and open the culture was. No one cares what you're doing really as long as things get done. Everyone is treated as an adult - there's no face time rule. And it's amazing working with highly intelligent people on a day-to-day basis. I was actually worried about this because IB/PE people are all generally pretty smart and on top of things and I just thought that might not be the case working with ppl from other industries. I was mistaken - they've hired top talent and everyone is on top of their game (ppl will follow up, let you know progress, not ask for random things to get made, etc.). It feels like everyone is well motivated and working in concert - that just boosts moral tbh.
Difficult to say. Will definitely stay for a few years (need my equity to vest!). I'd only leave if say we got acquired early on (early payout) or if there was an opportunity for me to be like the head of a team at a ballooning start-up. Otherwise, I'm more than happy rn to grow into a more senior role here.
If you made it all the way to the end of this, I commend you. Lost some traction mid way through but hope this helps!