Corp Dev / PE Associate Offer at Search Fund (120-150k) in MCOL City

Background: Currently at MBB (~1.5 years of tenure) as an undergraduate hire and thinking about leaving the firm in a month. I just received an offer for a corporate development / PE associate role in a MCOL city (think Denver, Austin, Philadelphia). The role is with this newly-formed acquisition platform and comp is 120-150k (20k of that is equity). Hours are around 45-60/week. I'd be employed by the fund itself (ran by 4-5 ex-PE guys, really small). Should I be asking for more given it's a PE-type role and those typically pay 200k+? I'm thinking of asking for ~170-180k but am not sure if that's too high. Edit: the firm in question is a search fund, not a PE shop. Just want to make that distinction.

9 Comments
 

What about if the alternative is LMM PE in the same MCOL city? I have a couple friends who work in PE here and one of them quoted he's making ~200k for ~50-60 hours of work.

I guess my question is not just about this role in a vacuum, but more so that there are presumably PE roles out there with equivalent WLB that pay more. While I'd be trading a bird in hand for hopefully landing a role at one of these shops (I'm pretty confident in this; past IB summer internships and strong financial acumen), I don't want to be underpaid if I'm confident I can likely find better.

Thoughts?

 

I’d imagine there are fewer of those LMM PE with good WLB roles / harder to secure. A lot of LMM PE role can become diligence heavy with less sophisticated financials to work with that consume a lot of hours. But, I’d agree that a LMM PE role with good WLB and an upward trajectory / clear path to carry would be very appealing

 

Don’t ever ever ever ever ever ever go to a search fund or independent sponsor. Raising capital for said deal will be a nightmare unless the guys have killer track records

 

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