Career Decision: Stay @ LMM Top Decile Healthcare Services LMM Fund (and get an MBA) or move to a LMM Tech Fund
Looking to make a career path decision:
Background: graduated non-target school and landed a gig at a small top decile shop. Currently, I am a senior analyst there studying for CFA L3.
Option 1: Stay at a top decile LMM healthcare fund (high volume shop) and get my MBA. The MDs are very tight with 2/7 M7 Business Schools, and can essentially drag me in by my feet. Pros: MBA
Option 2: Go to a larger fund 7-10B AUM and be in their LMM tech group. Pros: brand name, very good associate training program
I accepted the offer at the tech fund. Neither fund (Healthcare or Tech) know I accepted or recruited….
Please help a brotha out
Under the assumption you have determined you want a long-term career in PE, I would not weigh the MBA much in the decision. Deal experience in the LMM at a successful active fund is going to accelerate your skill set and network tremendously vs going off and getting an MBA. This is not to disparage an MBA, but if you are already in PE, I'm not sure forgoing 2 years of experience is a worthwhile tradeoff.
If you are industry agnostic, go to the larger fund. I may be over-indexing on your statement "very good associate training program", but that reads to me that you have come to the conclusion that your current employer isn't developing you at the pace you expect. This training and experience are even more vital the earlier you are in your carrer. It's a unique situation to be at a 5B+ LMM griyo. Most LMM groups are not $5B+.
However, if you have a high degree of conviction that both LMM and Healthcare are where you'd like to specialize your investing career in, stick with your current firm if you enjoy the people you work with and are getting enough deal reps. To have the market segment, industry end-market, and team you like all come together at an employer is rare. Even though the training may not be what you expect (see bullet above), you will more than make up for it through deal experiences in the LMM. You'll see posts littered throughout WSO with individuals not even having closed an add-on during a 2yr associate stint. Deal experience, LMM or otherwise, is extremely valuable and accelerates your career development.
I will admit that I'm a bit confused as to why you are asking the question, given you've already accepted the offer to the tech fund?
A couple of things to clarify here. At the Healthcare fund, is the option on the table to get your MBA but have the firm sponsor you and take you back post MBA? Are they paying for the MBA and presumably taking you back on as a VP afterwards?
Also, as skyline asked, if you already accepted the tech offer, are you going to reneg? You probably should have asked for a few days to make the decision because now you'll have to reneg on it immediately after accepting which is odd. For future reference, usually in this type of situation, you could ask for a few days to a week to discuss with your current firm.
Lastly, you mentioned larger fund in their LMM tech group. So I'm assuming it's some brand name fund that just launched a tech strategy. Sounds like a Charlesbank or the likes to me.
Here's how I think about it. If you'e happy with where you are, the fund is doing well, growing, and you're learning a lot, you like Healthcare, and the partners see a path to partner for you and are willing to sponsor you for an MBA and have you come back, I really don't see much reason to leave. Usually people leave funds because they don't see a path forward or they don't like the senior folks. A free M7 MBA and a path back to the firm is huge, honestly gives you the best of both worlds. MBAs are a ton of fun, great for professional development and would be even better if they're free. Also, given you're from a non-target background, any M7 would give you a nice brand boost.
With the tech fund, you're basically trying to get a better brand name. I think training is likely overrated, especially if you've already done deals at the HC fund in your first couple of years. The best training is doing deals and if you're a position to do those and see the whole process, you're getting trained. Branding is important, but again, there's so many variables to taking a new role like this. What if you get stuck working with a shitty VP? What if there's no advancement beyond Associate? Would you be ok taking this new role, doing 2 years and then having to pay your own way to go back for an MBA because you got two and outed? Is the brand worth that much?
If you hate healthcare and want to pivot to tech, then this is a good opportunity, but it sounds like everything is going pretty well at the fund you're at, so why not stay on and help to build the next generation of the firm?
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