Corp Dev M&A --> PE

Analyst doing M&A for F500 company. Want to transition to PE, but not sure when to start reaching out to headhunters. How many years/deals necessary to become a strong candidate?

532 WSO Academy Private Equity Session Reviews: 4.82/5

Anahuac University

Class of '18 Nov 2026 Cohort

5.00/5

Private Equity Full Resume Review

“Rachel helped me through the very beginning and we had several iterations that were crucial to the development of a better and great CV for applications. I appreciate her patience and puntual feedback every single time. Also the response time was very short and kept me aware of any delay. It kept me on line for what I had to do and some areas to focus that I didn't knowe before, and some of them honestly I didn't have any idea. Very well all around work”

Class of '24 Dec 2025 Cohort

5.00/5

Private Equity Mock Coffee Chat

“Julius was extremely helpful in breaking down the accounting concepts, especially allowing me the opportunity to walk through a question step by step on how the three financial statements are impacted across income, cash flow and balance sheet along with figuring out the mental math for it all. The concept for Equity Value to Enterprise value and bridging between the two were fairly straight forward. Along with the networking advice on reaching out to potential recruiters for Investment banking roles and how lateral recruitement is happening year end vs going into Q1 next year.”

See All 11,727 WSO Academy Reviews

2 Comments

mrharveyspecter

PE

7y

Most Helpful

I doubt there's a hard cutoff. People in IB get placed with 0 completed deals. You'd be best served networking outside of just working with recruiters. Most recruiters will focus on the kids they have a high likelihood of placing, which are generally investment bankers.

I see your in being, find a small industry focused firm that matches up with your Corp Dev experience. Sell them on how you're unique and better than someone traditional.

PE will be tough in general. You'd probably be better served trying to lateral into banking first if you have less than 2 years of experience.

Reply

Quote

Report

Other

Authored by: Certified Private Equity Professional - Vice PresidentCertified Private Equity Pro

Generate

AC

7y

Sit modi voluptatem inventore aliquid. Sunt accusantium nulla dolorem harum.

Mollitia explicabo dolor rerum officiis nihil. Porro ea voluptatibus voluptates quod ea. Fugiat quas aut et velit saepe. Eum hic totam error velit dolorem. Et et sunt harum et culpa.

Enim placeat reprehenderit est aut placeat. Fugit fuga sed ipsa dolores et velit. Magnam rerum commodi expedita aut minus eum animi.

Hic sunt corrupti quia reiciendis. Praesentium officia ut mollitia optio adipisci autem occaecati. Aspernatur quia ut aut. Sequi est excepturi et sed dolores odit.

Reply

Quote

Report

Other

+106	Cognitive decline	33	1d
+46	PE VP: Thoughts on Quitting with Nothing Lined Up?	19	4h
+38	Those unemployed in PE 3+ months, how do you make progress every day?	14	1h
+13	How Cooked is Software PE?	1	5d
+12	co-investment / Allocator roles WLB	4	1d
+12	Is it possible to get no comments as an analyst?	3	1d
+12	Indian PE Landscape	2	4d
+10	Firm Culture in PE	4	3d
+10	How frequent do associates & above go from IB to PE?	6	4d
+9	Sequence Holdings and the Dell family office are buying Baldwin Insurance Group at about $7.7B TEV. What does a family office add to a take-private?	2	6d

1	redever	99.2
2	Secyh62	99.0
3	kanon	99.0
4	BankonBanking	99.0
5	DrApeman	98.9
6	GameTheory	98.9
7	dosk17	98.9
8	CompBanker	98.9
9	Betsy Massar	98.9
10	Mimbs	98.8

Elite Career Bootcamp. Top Job Offer Guaranteed.

Elite Career Bootcamp. Top Job Offer Guaranteed.

Corp Dev M&A --> PE

Score Breakdown

Feedback

Score Breakdown

Feedback

Elite Career Bootcamp. Top Job Offer Guaranteed.

Elite Career Bootcamp. Top Job Offer Guaranteed.

Corp Dev M&A --> PE

See All Comments - 100% Free

Trending Content - Private Equity Forum