How to Answer the Why not PE? Question in IB Interviews/ Coffee Chats
I'm recruiting for SA 26 and my past two summers have been in PE. Multiple analysts have asked me "why not PE" during coffee chats. My answer right now touches upon these points but I feel like it doesn't check out super well (I do plan on being in PE long term but I'm recruiting for banking for the optionality to do something else within finance or stay in IB)
- PE is constrained by the size of the fund – less learning opportunities versus banking where pitching/ live deals are constant and fast paced – touches upon why I want to do banking from my intro (learning)
- Preference for advisory – touch upon previous experiences working on buying and selling social media accounts vs. managing them. Also talk about background in debate where you're given a topic to learn and argue about which is much more similar to creating sell-side materials, whereas the thinking in PE is very broad and focused on development
- Like the idea of thinking about pitching/ thinking about synergistic relationships – landed partnerships w/ well-known companies with my startup through this kind of thinking and it was very rewarding.
- I found the deal-making aspect of PE the most interesting – also touch upon buying and selling stuff my whole life, and I'm not particularly interested in business operations as much.
Sounds kind-of BS imo. Should I instead go for an approach along the lines of, "I don't know where I'll be in 2-5 years but I am not the type of person to be thinking about where they are going to be before they put their best foot forward in what they're currently doing" and then elaborate upon why I'm interested in starting a career in banking specifically?
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