What I preach is not what I do

Hi everyone,

I am looking to make a career change and want your advice.

At 29, I consider myself a competitive person with average level of intelligence which I tend to compensate for through hard work and discipline. I am living in London, married with one child under the age of two. I graduated a target school in the UK after which I spent 4 years in FIG IB and 2 years in mid-market growth PE fund in London. I have been long inspired by Warren Buffet and Charlie Munger and there is the issue...what I preach is not what I do.

I am determined to find a role that closely mirrors Buffet-style investing while avoiding ending up in a sweatshop. I came up with the following alternatives.

• LO funds with focus on long-term value investments
• Generalist Secondaries / Co-invest funds
• Generalist direct value PE funds

My questions are somewhat naive:

1) Is it rational to recruit for exactly what I want or should I throw a wider net again since the chances of getting an exact match are slim?

2) Which of these alternatives is most likely to lead to the promised land and

3) Am I missing something?

Please see text below for my full background. Fair warning, most of it might sound like whining (probably is) so feel free to ignore if you are in a good mood.

My initial career choice was heavily influenced by crowd following tendency. I am an expat from a less affluent country born into a middle-class family and am quite competitive.  Naturally, being able to get a job which everyone wanted but few got was a perfect fit for my psychological predisposition.

The first 2 years, I barely had time to shower but enjoyed the job. It had a steep learning curve, paid well and was "prestigious" (remember that feeling where you say to some who never asked that you are in IB...gold!). As I progressed through the ranks, I had the opportunity to work on several transactions representing PE funds. Three things caught my attention: 1) they seemed to be using their brain more than I did; 2) investment banking has little to do with learning how to make good investments and 3) almost everyone around me wanted to go to PE. Naturally, I started to looking for a job in a PE fund and after several months of recruiting I got only 1 offer which I took (“beggars can’t be choosers” 😊).

I was very excited to start this chapter of my life as I was finally going to get closer to my mentor – Warren Buffet – or so I thought. The fund I joined is small (~£1bn), invests in niche sectors which are subject to increased competition, is in the middle of fund raising and I am the most junior employee. Consequently, the universe of investable companies is small, the focus falls on selling the fund to LPs and almost all admin work goes through me. Although, I find the job more meaningful vs. IB, it has very little to do with investing (even at senior level) as opportunities are rare so everyone jumps when one comes to market. I have gained valuable insights, particularly in portfolio management, but find myself at a crossroads once again. I want to take the time to make a well-considered decision, avoid following the crowd and hopefully be able to “choose” rather than take the “next best alternative” or the "only available alternative". 

Thank you for your time and consideration.