Q&A: MBB to Private Equity, Promoted to VP
Title says most of it - I went to a target undergrad (H/Y/P/S/W), started at MBB, and then moved to PE after 2 years. Now a VP at a <10B AUM private equity fund. AMA, or book time for 1:1
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Cash comp and DAW?
All in cash comp is mid 300s, DAW around $2m
All in cash comp seems low for a VP at a fund that size, are you in a LCOL city?
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I would recommend MBB. VC is perceived from a recruiting perspective as not being model heavy enough to be a "banker" and not being problem-solving oriented enough to be a consultant, so you might often be skipped over for PE recruiting. That said, if you'd like to be in VC, it's not a bad idea to go directly.
Total comp?
Answered above
Which do you enjoy more - PE or consulting?
PE. I get to see a process from start to finish and form a real view on what to do with the asset as well as how to get a good deal done. Consulting tends to limit you to specific modules, which can be interesting but ultimately lack breadth
Thanks for the response.
Do you think you held a disadvantage (in terms of applications) over those who come from banking, or were odds roughly the same?
Honestly seems like a bit of a cheat code for the die hard PE folk who are only doing banking to hop into PE.
What skills from your MBB days best translate to your responsibilities in PE? Is there anything you wish you worked on at MBB to help with the transition?
Pretty stereotypical honestly - MBB trained me to think critically and ask the right questions, it did not train me well enough on Excel and my first few months as an associate were pretty brutal. I think MBB ends up being better PE professionals as soon as 6 months into the job
Did you try recruiting for MF PE (the ones that do hire MBB consultants for their deals team; i.e. Advent, Bain, H&F)? If you did, why do you think they passed on you?
I think I did? Honestly, not sure. I was MBB in a 2nd tier office, might have been enough to ding me.
I was MBB to a similar sized fund. I never built a model from scratch and my modeling skills are poor because of a variety of reasons. I left for H/S telling my fund I did not want to go back and they gave a review of “great with everything, here’s your target bonus, happy to give you intros and referrals, but technically untrustworthy”.
Everything but modeling I excel at (no pun intended). I’m not sure whether it’s worth it at HS to double down on learning accounting and modeling or whether that ship has sailed and I should look to other careers.
Taking everything in this post as given and considering the specific scenario at hand, what would your thoughts be?
The funny thing is people like you are able to go in as a VP to another fund and ultimately get to a post-MBA role where you can hand off the model to an Associate from a banking program. It’s a little bit of a cheat code now that there are so many VP / Principal spots with PE funds getting so big
Is this true? AS1 is not capable of the speed and accuracy that's required in a full fledged late stage deal or when the partner is going off on wanting to see a million structures all asap. And the partner or principal will call the VP usually asking about numbers in depth and expecting him to do mental gymnastics on the fly. Not sure how you hide behind your associate here
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