Big 4 Audit to PE in London
Hi all,
I am currently working in audit at one of the Big 4 in London. I qualify in September this year. My ultimate goal is to work in private equity (might be a bit ambitious, but humor me). From what I have heard, my best bet is probably: current role -> internal transfer to TAS for a year or two -> M&A/LevFin at a bank for a year or two -> PE. Does anyone have any thoughts on this? Is there anything I should be doing in the meantime to better my chances? I imagine it will be a bit of an uphill climb, but I am hoping a thoughtful plan + persistence + luck helps turn this plan into reality. Thanks in advance!
Hey there, will provide couple of points which might be helpful. I am working on the basis that you are ~3 years in now since you are about to qualify but let me know if this is wrong.
Firstly, with a bit of persistence most anything is possible so worth continuing to grind towards your goals regardless.
The switch to TAS is probably worth it for both the opportunity to go to IB M&A and the opportunity to move to LMM PE directly (which I understand happens from TAS more than Audit). So would focus on that initially. Would be worth getting views of other people on whether you need to be in TAS overall? I feel like the banks only ask for ACA in the UK so I don't know whether potentially you could reduce your timeline by going straight to banking rather than going TAS first.
Next, would focus on an M&A group not LevFin if you are trying for PE. You will already have a bit of an uphill battle to go PE and LevFin is incrementally more difficult for classic PE exits. I think realistically for the move to M&A you are talking the EBs like Evercore, Roths, Lazard, etc. given they seem to have the most consistent ACA to banking paths (but not an expert here).
Finally, the prospective move to PE. I don't mean to come down on you, but I suspect MF PE will be slightly too much of a reach here. They are extremely picky on profiles and by the time you are recruiting for it you will likely be past the recruitment window. Is it impossible? Nothing is, but I just want you to be realistic here that this is not even remotely close to an expected outcome and can't be counted on. Assuming you get from TAS to M&A within a year or so I feel like you might be able to recruit for MM PE shops out of your banking group. So, with all of those moves you would essentially be getting a higher paying long-term path in IB with potential for an incremental bump in PE recruitment (LMM only into standard MM). I think probably worth it on balance, but only something you can answer.
As a side note, the hedge fund recruitment window stays open longer than MF / UMM PE for bankers so there is a chance you could get some looks there further down the line but given your title I have focused the response on PE.
Naturally, please feel free to disregard this you know your personal situation better than we can.
Thanks for this, I really appreciate the thoughtful response!
Yes, I'm ~ 3 years in. I think I would try with the banks while looking at a transfer to TAS at the same time. Obviously would be nice to speed up the timeline but just trying to be realistic about the path in from audit. But I think I will just try a bit of everything to be honest. Direct to IB. Direct to LMM PE. Via TAS. Just try and see where I get some traction.
Apologies if this is a bit of a stupid question, but when you talk about the recruitment window, what exactly do you mean? Is this just the recruitment cycle each year? Or is it the case that once you get to a certain age/number of years in, you reach the point of no return and can't really break in?
Et sed vitae explicabo quae ea. Commodi quis sed autem corporis.
See All Comments - 100% Free
WSO depends on everyone being able to pitch in when they know something. Unlock with your email and get bonus: 6 financial modeling lessons free ($199 value)
or Unlock with your social account...