Advice for Financing IB to LMM PE?

I will be joining an IB group that does mostly financings, so I’m not sure that I’ll be able to have an M&A deal under my belt before recruiting for PE. I was wondering if anyone has been in this situation before or worked in ECM that successfully joined a buyout fund after? I’m not shooting for anything big like UMM/MF PE, but am interested in landing a buyside role at a smaller, more regional PE firm with a decent shot at P&L.

Anyways, how did you spin your experience during the interview? What areas did you highlight to the interviewers? Any firms off the top of your head that have been generally open to non-M&A bankers? Thanks for the help.

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