Hello all, Currently in consulting (1.5 yoe, like both the job and firm) with objective to shift to PE within a couple of years. The path I have in mind is quite well proven and considerably safe in terms of career prospects and job security.
I've recently been offered the possibility to join a highly acquisitive PE backed holding in an interesting sector (not the one I would have aimed for in PE but still a very important market in my country). The role responds directly to the the holding's CFO (team of 6) and tasks include budgeting/BPs for the subsidiaries and further developing the M&A strategy by directing the acquisition processes from scouting to operational improvement working with the subs' CFOs. The objective is to IPO the group in the next few years (not really sure about how long it could realistically take).
One one side, I am keen to the opportunity because the IPO adventure is very appealing, the fact that the group is well known and backed by an important PE player in the country would shine on my resume. Additionally, I believe going back to consulting with that kind of experience behind me would be relatively easy.
On the other side, I would be taking a big step towards an unknown situation (higher the risk higher the payoff?) in which I don't actually know if it would bring me much closer to an investment role in PE compared to where I am now. Plus, could it be to early to try and make such a shift? The fact that i'd be working in the real economy doesn't bother me nor excites me particularly, for that matter.
Any experience or advice? Thanks in advance!
I don't think this is that wild of a move. If things go well, awesome. If not, you have a nice consulting stint + PE backed portco experience to find something else with. Sounds like a great opportunity to learrn the operational and growth side of things.
If PE is your end all be all, that's where I might say go to PE first as it does get trickier trying to go portco -> PE with no investing experience. But if you're not totally set on PE, this seems like an interesting job.
PE is definitely the end goal... Do you think no skills would be transferable to an investment role? Is portco -> PE shift that hard when completely involved in the M&A processes (they typically do 3/4 acquisitions a year). Would you mind explaining why or based on what you say this?
PE is a blue-chip seat and they have the pick of the litter, so once you are ASO/senior ASO level like you will be after a few years here, everyone you are competing with will have prior investing experience. If you had a year or two prior PE experience (or even IB really) I'd say that is fine and you could get back to that seat, but consulting + portco is just not really a very technical skillset. Operational roles like this one are just inherently different than an investor seat, even if you are doing M&A. It can be done, this is just not the best path is all.
Again, looks like a really interesting role but it seems like PE is your main priority. If so, I would start recruiting for that instead.
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