Best path to private equity

Hi everyone! A little background about me before starting: I went to the #1 school in Italy, studied management (bachelor, full marks) and accounting & finance (master, with honours). During my university years (I am 24 and graduated one month ago) I did two erasmus periods at well regarded universities and two 3-months M&A internships, one at a very small boutique, the other at grant thornton M&A (no FDD). Now I am in the rotational corporate finance graduate program of one of the Big4 (areas: FDD, M&A advisory, Valuation and Strategy Consulting) and my homebase (= area where you will work at the end of the program) is FDD. I was thinking about changing my homebase to Strategy (unlikely) or M&A advisory (more feasible, because of my internships and studies). Given that I want to break into MM PE within a few years, what I should do to make it happen (in term of next stepsin my carreer)? Many people say I should try IB but I don't want to work IB hours... thank you in advance!

2 Comments
 

I think unfortunately you know the answer (as you asked for the best path to PE, which in my mind is the path of least resistance). You should lateral to IB and then consider a move to private equity. For headhunters as well as firms this is going to be the simplest story to get credit behind and support on. I'm not sure what the breadth of associates look like in MM PE but I would imagine that most are not necessarily coming from your background. If you are deadset on trying to break into PE from your current background, I would try to spend your time networking as much as possible with firms of your interest (perhaps you will find associates with similar backgrounds!) It will be hard to break in but perhaps if you grind it could be possible. 

 

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