Could I still get into PE with this type of experience?

I'm currently a junior at an Ivy-equal target school (think Stanford, MIT, Chicago, Duke, etc), but it seems like I got dinged at the 2 BB banks I interviewed with for IBD SA. I recently got an offer at this medical business development company that starts medical businesses from scratch; the internship seems like a mix of mgmt consulting and venture capital. One of the head guys there also told me that they can hire me full-time if I do a good job. I'm also genuinely interested in seeing if med business development is a career path I'd like to pursue. But would it be possible to still get into PE (not necessarily megafunds, but regional boutique/MM funds)? If this matters, I have a great connection to a guy at Bain Capital.

19 Comments
 

MIT, Puretech? Good environment, smart people. Transition to IB or PE will require networking and selling people on your overall profile, not necessarily your Puretech experience.

 

Sounds like a good Corporate Development-related experience. A lot of people go from IBD to Corporate Development, so I think that if you can stay on full-time with this firm for a year, and then lateral to the Corporate Development team at one of the healthcare firms you'll be advising, I think you could definitely get into a solid MBA program and then get into IB as an associate.

You might also find your way into IB after a few more years in Corporate Development, especially if you can work on a few M&A's internally.

 

Like I said unlikely.

There's a very specific path to PE. There is a very small contingent of people who get into PE from other paths, the most substantial of these would be from top tier consulting (particularly McK). Not part of that subset is a medical business development role.

You can try to rationalize why it is more applicable than people give it credit for, or you can acknowledge the limitations of such a role and make a fully informed decision of whether you'd be content in that field and would like to proceed in that role and virtually eliminate a future in PE or whether you're hell bent on PE and need to assess other options.

 

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