Ask Me Anything: S&T to Consulting to PE Ops

Question

Hey WSO, long time lurker, but happy to give back to the forum that has taught me a lot along the way

About me:
    • Mechanical Engineering at a Target School
    • Junior internship in Sales + Trading at BB Bank (return offer)
    • 2-3 years MBB Consulting 
    • Currently in PE Ops in a new team at leading Tech PE/VC investor

Feel free to ask me anything

Giraffe21 · Accepted Answer

Thanks for reviving this thread!

Agree with you that PE Ops roles are often very barbelled (e.g., assoc who did 2-3 yrs at MBB or operating partner with 20 years of industry experience).  But that is starting to change, and like you said it is all fund specific.  There are some funds who are now hiring at the VP level mostly in the growth equity/lower middle market PE (e.g., 2-3 years of consulting, 2-3 years of industry experience to tell the founder/ceo you have some industry experience).  At certain shops, these VPs make the same total comp (incl carry) as the deal t

Giraffe21 · Answer

The ranges I have seen in the H&S reports is in the right ballpark based on my experiences.  Obviously depends which firm you go to as comp can vary quite a bit.

Regarding my MBB and PE Ops pay, in my negotiation with my current firm I asked for all-in compensation in line with mega-fund investing associates, which was ~$50k more than I would be making the next year at MBB.  My firm came back a bit more than halfway between the two numbers and I accepted

Regarding comp vs investing professions, this can vary significantly firm by firm.

Giraffe21 · Answer

Hi Brilldavecarl,

Its a good question, but first we need to narrow the world of "PE Ops" as that can look very different based on the different flavors.  My response below will be for buyout PE shops ops groups (e.g., KKR Capstone, Bain Cap, etc).  If you are interviewing at growth/tech ops groups which are often classified as PE Ops (e.g., Insight Onsite) it could be very different.

For Buyout PE Ops, I would expect your prep to cover three main areas:

1) Traditional MBB Case Interview Skills---As a strategy consultant this should not require much prep if any, but you

Giraffe21 · Answer

I did almost all of my work at MBB around commercial/growth strategy, so a lit of GTM, product launch, international expansion, pricing, and BU turnarounds on the organic growth side and corporate M&A and PE DDs on the in-organic side. Understanding how PE firms do diligence/think about investing and building a network in PE was definitely helpful when interviewing for my next role

My question to you is why do you want to move to PE Ops, and what makes you want to join MBB to get there?

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Ask Me Anything: S&T to Consulting to PE Ops

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Ask Me Anything: S&T to Consulting to PE Ops

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