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October 31, 2026
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mistake, sorry
Huh? No one goes from PE to banking. I assure you of that fact.
I work for a tier-one M&A group. Depending on who you ask, possibly the best M&A focused platform on the street.
I would say about half of the VPs/Directors have spent time at private equity funds before returning to M&A (some mid market/some larger firms like TPG). A number of the associates we hire have worked at PE funds prior to B-school.
Sorry - I meant Top Tier PE. I know a lot of ppl who do MM PE and then BB Banking...
I know a few people who have (myself included), but these guys were invariably either not happy or not successful.
I left a B+ firm (one tier below Blackstone, TPG, KKR) to return to M&A because I missed the "deal" environment, and was happier running and negotiating deals than I was doing analysis and due diligence.
And for people more senior:
I knew a guy who is the head of a major group on Wall Street, who was poached away to head an industry vertical at a major fund, who told he came back to the same bank because he couldn't deal with the slower pace of private equity.
And there's Brian Finn, who used to run M&A at CSFB, who went to CD&R and came back. My friends at CD&R who say he was a much more talented banker than investor.
The skill sets get very different at a senior level. Some people (i.e., Schwarzman) can do both. Manry others (i.e., Wasserstein) cannot.
"If an analyst(after 2 years) with good reviews and ranked around the top of their class wanted to try out PE or another opportunity on the buyside for a year or two, but then decided they didn't like it and wanted to return to IB, will their old firm (or a firm of similar quality) take them back as an associate, or will they have to go get their MBA and reapply?"
In a market like this where people are starved for good associates, that's possible. In a more neutral or down market, the expectation is probably that you would go to business school
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