Squeeze in 1 year of PE before MBA, or stay on as IB Associate?
I'm a non target who didn't break into IB out of college but lateraled into an Analyst seat at a strong bank and group after 1 year of irrelevant work experience.
I also hold a H/S deferred MBA offer that I can defer for max 4 years out of undergrad. Problem is, I'd only have 3 years between starting my IB analyst job and heading off to this MBA, which isn’t enough to complete a 2 year IB analyst stint and ideally a 2 year PE associate stint. That would’ve set me up on the ‘racing line’ of pre MBA 2+2 career paths from my understanding.
The way I see it, I have 2 options now:
1. Do 3 years at my bank as A2A, the head to my MBA.
2. Do 2 years at my bank as an analyst, recruit into a PE associate seat, and then leave after a year to go for my MBA
Concerns I have about either path:
1. A2A IB: Would only having pre-MBA banking experience severely limit my optionality into investing roles, even from a H/S MBA?
2. 2Y IB + 1Y PE: Would I be perceived negatively by recruiters and investment firms if I only have 1 year of PE experience before my MBA? For PE/other investing jobs out of B school, I understand I’d be competing with people who completed their 2-year PE associate stints, and I’m wondering if I’d be unable to access the same options as them.
E.g. would I end up having to recruit for the MFPE 2-and-out ASO programs that people normally do before B-school, or be constrained to only LMM/MM PE?
I suppose I could always re-recruit for IB if PE doesn’t work out, but I’d have to commit to that early on in my MBA as IB summer recruiting typically wraps up by end of my first semester.
Which of the two paths is more optimal? I don’t exactly know if I wanna be a career banker or die hard investor yet. My long term goals are just to maximize my optionality in finance and risk adjusted expected value of my lifetime earnings, because idk what I want to do with my life yet.
Do PE. You will have much more optionality out of MBA with PE background than without.
This seems to be the view of my IB->PE friends too, but any thoughts on recruiting out of B school for a PE gig but falling back on IB if it doesn’t work out/ I don’t get looks?
I don’t know enough about the PE recruiting landscape because I never even considered that this could’ve been a path for me.
Will have to do more research and coffee chats in the interimo
Defer your mba 1 year so you do 1+2+2+2 instead of 2+2+2
Not possible, already asked.
Bump
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