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October 31, 2026
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Most people I know who decided IB over PE are deal junkies. You will do a great deal more transactions staying on the sell-side (especially if you’re in a product group). It’s the nature of the business. As a PE professional, I will likely not put any capital to work towards the majority of opportunities I look at. When I started my PE associate role, my best buddy got the analyst to associate promote at his BB. After 3 years, I’m sure he will have done more equity, debt and M&A than me. This is also one of the selling points they used at my BB to encourage analysts to stay. You are your deal experience.
Also, all capital isn’t created equal and not buy-side all firms have a broad/flexible investment mandate, which would further narrow the types of deals you can work on versus had you took the IB path.
I like the idea of working for a larger company with world-wide offices and being exposed to the opportunities that brings along. I would like to spend my career at XX bank and would like to eventually be in a leadership role. Most PE firms (aside from the mega) are industry specific and it's more of a revolving door and only so many spots at the top as opposed to a larger organization where you can grow into a senior leadership position.
Of course you can do that in PE, it's just a lot harder.
Do interviewers really ask this in associate interviews? I would imagine the answer is pretty self-explanatory: the interviewee lacks the pre-requisite PE experience for a post-MBA PE role.
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