Am I fully delusional?
First post, in need of a sanity check.
Vague for anonymity’s sake.
Background: I graduated from a service academy. I was an athlete there. I am currently active-duty military. My role now is a “deputy” or “acting” director of operations for a military asset. This asset’s total cumulative value is in the multibillion $ range. I plan to exit the military in a few years in my late 20’s.
I am very passionate about transitioning into a finance role after I have completed my service. I started studying for the CFA a year ago, have passed the first level, and am in the process of studying for L2. My goal is to go directly into PE. I know this is lofty. But assuming I pass all three levels of the CFA, I feel like I can offer a lot, especially with the following caveat:
There’s a program called “skill bridge” that allows you to serve the last 6 months of your mil career in an internship. The government compensates you as if you were still in your active-duty role, you only need an employer to accept you as an intern.
I have some back door connects to a few PE firms. In my view, with the connections, the CFA, and the ability to offer a free 6 month off cycle internship, I make an attractive candidate to at least get in the door. Obviously, I must prove myself thereafter, but the prior is the hurdle I’m most occupied w now.
Am I insane for taking this line? Consolidated concerns are the following:
Age/role: I’ll be late 20’s competing for an analyst 1 spot that typically houses early 20’s folk w 2-3yr IB/other finance experience. Does someone 5ish years outside the typical age range even get a look for that position (as an intern AND full time)?
Background/role: Some of my industry friends say going for a post-MBA associate role would be more realistic, but this seems lofty again. Especially w no finance experience outside of CFA. I’m aware that CFA is not a golden ticket to insert finance job, and may have little application to PE, but thought it was best option for me to develop financial acumen. Figure with this knowledge I can learn PE role faster than someone w no background or an MBA / MS in finance.
I believe my plan is calculated and demonstrates commitment and passion for entering a field, but I’m at the point in the process where I would appreciate some critical feedback. I want to make sure I don’t spend the next year of my life grinding on something that PE hiring bodies won’t even consider. Please give thoughts, opinions, experiences, and advice. Thanks all!
Get into a top 7 MBA program and do banking and then transition into a LMM PE firm (in total probably 5 years from when you start b-school to when you might get into PE as a relatively junior associate or senior associate). Alternatively, if and only if, you get into HBS / GSB you might be competitive for one of the veterans hiring programs at Blackstone or KKR but those programs usually end up feeding folks into ops / supporting roles and not principal investing positions.
Bluntly, for better or for worse, the industry is of the view that you have to put in your time in investment banking to learn the absolute basics of this industry before you can transition to private equity. If you join at a post MBA level (which is higher cash comp and more appropriate for your experience level) there are very very few PE opportunities and the ones that do exist are at LMM firms usually. I do not think anyone would be willing to hire someone with your level of experience and age as an analyst, nor do I think you would personally be willing to deal with the way you would be treated in that capacity after having worked for a few years (even if it is in the military). The industry needs 22 year old cannon fodder who, candidly, don't have any perspective on what is or is not appropriate and have basically 0 obligations to literally anyone else or anything else other than just working. Post MBA associates are treated far more like adults.
There are some exceptions to this, most notably in renewables / infra. That industry area is absolutely starving for people right now, so you might be able to do MBA -> BB Renewables IB -> PE at a VP level (instead of associate level) in that field. Private credit funds are another area I've seen Lev Fin post MBA associates land. If you do restructuring banking you might be able to get into a special situations fund (especially if you're a JD / MBA). But, in any event, expect to not get into PE for at least 5 years from when you start an MBA program to have realistic expectations. If waiting that long to get a junior job in finance where you're still working 80 hours a week and have no control over your schedule is worth it to you is your decision.
You might find a few outliers who took a different path, but this is what I've seen happen 95% of the time.
In short - If you want a career in finance, I would focus all your energy on GMAT / Business School applications. You can use the skillbridge program to maybe get a pre-MBA internship (that likely will not convert into a full time opportunity) in banking or PE, which can demonstrate passion and interest in finance to banks that recruit on campus. Don't spend time looking for analyst roles (you wouldn't want to go be a private first class at this point in your career / personal development would you? That is basically the equivalent of what you would be treated like as an IB analyst).
To add to this, it's much easier (from what I've observed) to jump to buyside from RX sellside roles vs. traditional M&A. Have seen RX VPs jump to credit hedge funds, top distressed PE, etc. If OP is really dead set on PE this might be the highest probability path (assuming they can get into top MBA -> top RX which is obviously a very difficult path).
Any further insight why renewables/infrastructure needs people right now? I understand this industry is growing so more demand, but are applicants also steering clear of it?
Appreciate your thoughtful and lengthy reply. Haven't put requisite thought into specific sectors. Will def pay more attention to that as I move along in the process. It seems that in your view you don't see any way of cracking IB and especially PE with the “package” I’d be presenting to an employer (see more details on skill bridge in my reply to VP in PE - LBO’s for more context). Does the CFA (assuming I pass all 3 levels) not carry that much weight? I guess I thought of it as a lesser but similar qualification to MBA. Certainly not to a top 7 program, but good for an off cycle backdoor internship and general finance knowledge.
Are you familiar with the Veterans Integration Program at GS? Historically a 6 month exposure to different arms like ER, IB, etc. Based on my research about a third of the class of interns get return offers (class size of 30ish). If the offer is for IB, would you speculate that they’d come on as an analyst? Can't imagine they’d come on as associates. And those are all folks w similar situations to mine. Thanks again for your feedback!
CFA doesn’t really matter for IB / PE other than demonstrating interest in finance candidly.
Im not sure what that GS program is, but sounds like it’s worth a shot to apply to but I wouldn’t put all my eggs in that one basket.
The single most direct and straight forward path to your desired outcome is MBA. You should explore other alternatives for sure and hope to get lucky, but this should be your primary focus. If you don’t, you’re wasting time (that candidly at your age you don’t have much of if you want to make this transition) chasing outliers and ignoring the most realistic path forward. Look at the veteran profiles who are outliers and skipped the line to get into PE and ask yourself if you’re honestly like them - SOF or pilots with 750 GMAT (even if they didn’t go to bschool most of them took it), rec letters from generals and with near perfect undergrad GPAs.
The other thing I will leave you with is to ask yourself if you are qualified to do deals (not finance word problems on the CFA but actual deals) in PE with no private sector experience? The people I’ve encountered who did backdoor their way into the industry are usually incredibly incompetent at the job because they have no foundational skillset. I know of a vet with a stellar background (sof and elite mba and elite undergrad) who made it to a megafund who was widely viewed as difficult to work for and incompetent because he joined at the VP level right out of bschool having never worked in finance - yeah I guess he got the job but he also was fired within 1 year when it became apparent he literally did not know how to do the job and no one had time to spoon feed it to him. Yes IB is stupid logo moving but you do learn the language and way that work is done in finance which is candidly different from every other industry on the planet. Don’t short change yourself by trying to avoid getting pre requisite required experience even if it is dumb (would you let a guy who didn’t graduate IBLOC become a Ranger PL?).
Spend 80% of your energy on MBA applications and 20% on networking / trying to get into one of these special programs. Do not assume you are unique because of your CFA or will get lucky trying to back door your way into the industry and skipping the normal rite of passage for career changers of MBA + IB. Your time is extremely valuable and your window of opportunity to transition before you’re too old is closing. Don’t waste it chasing after unlikely outcomes.
I can tell you chose the right academy. I have experience with this transition and I’d be happy to chat. Shoot me a PM if interested.
To summarize it - it’s not impossible, but most (if not all) of us from a service academy on the buyside certainly had a lucky break paired with a lot of preparation.
Would love to, thanks!
Delulu is the Solulu
On a more serious note, I think this is either (i) highly unlikely or (ii) unlikely but doable. What's great though is that you can figure out whether it's the former or the latter on your own by doing that unpaid internship.
Unless you have a good alternative to use the 6 month "skill bridge" program for, I would focus on just getting that first step out of the way and then re-evaluate.
Getting an unpaid internship in PE is not trivial. An intern can be a drag because of the need to train.
FYI as someone that transitioned from a "non-traditional" path (private credit), just want to give you a heads up that each step is significant and yet at the same time, insufficient. For example, if you get the unpaid internship, that's great. But you will still face challenges trying to convert that to a full-time role. Did you make progress? Yes. Does that mean the door for a career in private equity has been bust open for you? No. Rather, the door is just slightly more ajar
The last place I expected to come across that first phrase😂
Thanks for your reply. I know this path will be most difficult. But every academy grad who’s cracked PE/wall street has a story of grinding. Doable, just really difficult, and a lot of hard work/pressing through barriers w low P() of success. I especially appreciate your point about the non-triviality of bringing on an intern and the “significant yet insufficient” idea.
For a little more clarity, the skill bridge program requires that you engineer a “syllabus” for your internship/employer if it is not already an existing skillbridge partner (they have a ton of opportunities for different industries that are pre-established). Mine, you can think of as a DIY skillbridge. Unsurprisingly, pre-established high level fin positions and internships are pretty much non-existent in this regard.
My idea was that I do the following: (i) work with my friends/network who are relatively seasoned in PE now to create a detailed, comprehensive syllabus (ii) present to backdoor connections 1 year before internship, (iii) gauge interest/plausibility (iv) if accepted, already have practiced/learned (to the extent possible) what was on the syllabus. Thus, between that and the CFA (assuming pass L3), setting me up well to at least demonstrate some degree of competence that may be above par for an intern w 0 exp (again, can't say how good I’ll actually be, but I’m betting on myself here). This increases the slim P() of a return offer.
I think an important flaw as ID’d by first commenter though, is that this would really only apply to an entry level position (no assoc 1 internships I’m assuming), and by that calculus, it would not be worthwhile to do the internship if you're viewing it only from a return offer scope.
Any additional thoughts would be greatly appreciated. Again, thanks for your reply.
Hey man, first of all congrats for your background. During my recruiting process I was also studying to take CFA L1, always mentioning during interviews.
Of course it is just L1 but off the record during networking chats the team of the funds I interviewed in always said something like "it is a great way to show technical skillls but in the end won't be pratically helpful unless you want to do HF"
As you don't have a finance background, I think your study/prep time would be better applied in 1) MBA apps, 2) Networking, 3) Online Courses such as Breaking Into Wall Street and Wall Street Prep.
These courses are really helpful given your background as it would give you a first touch with the job, modeling basics, etc. That should help you to develop practical skills that will be far more helpful in a case study than understanding derivatives.
My background is M&A and Growth Equity, as I'm really passionate about tech investing, don't know if it is in your niches of interest but happy to talk more if you find helpful, feel free to PM
Best
Absolutely, thanks!
This post is great, I recently retired playing professional soccer (late 20s & little time for interships) and have been experiencing similar situations in terms of getting that foot in the door.
Spoke with any former pro athletes in IB and said you should be fine they love ppl like us. I imagine similarly to military vets wanting to break in.
Finally roles are starting to appear but still unsure how we stack up against ppl who have been laid off and applying to analysts roles etc
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