Does My MFPE experience carry weight? (Warburg/BX) as associate in Mumbaii, India
2Y as associate in BX/WP after my BCG stint. Planing for bschool in H/W. Heard it's tough for Post MIBA to break in w/o prior PE experience but I have a geographical disadvantage. Not even targeting MF but UMM/MM. Had learnt even post Bschool ->IB associate ->PE is tough.
Does prior experience albeit in different geography carries weight? Global funds are very active in India investing across sectors.
To be blunt, no, I would trust the quality of training more and would rather hire from a US-based LMM/MM fund. The only time I know of people expressing positivity about hiring from India-based funds is when they're also an India-focused fund or plan on targeting some other emerging market.
Yeah this is the the unfortunate truth. Lots of perceptions of less rigor and more blatant nepotism (whether true or not). Maybe a bit diff if IB stint was done in the US, but w/ consulting as the pre-PE gig, will be a really uphill battle. And that's not even taking into account potential sponsorship considerations.
The unfortunate reality is the combo of 1) your mf experience in India and 2) the mba is less valuable than a 24 year old at a top US bank for high finance recruiting in the US
It carries more weight than AT LEAST Tobin & Co.
WSO hates Indian people, you probably won’t get helpful responses on here
weird ass response
Hate to break it to you kid but that isn't unique to WSO
I work at a fund where we have a lot of Indians as senior leaders; and even my firm would rather hire someone American-based with worse brand names on the resume over someone with Indian experience. There is a huge nepotism and corruption problem in India that most people are aware of. Whether right or wrong, the perception of anyone in Indian high positions is that they got it from nepotism or corruption.
Being Indian is a huge plus for promotions at some funds in the US if you can make it here. There is very clear nepotism towards Indians by other Indians or Indian-Americans in hiring and promotions. It's similar for mostly white firms though, it's just what happens when you work with people from similar backgrounds. Even at my firm, my mentors are other white man.
Well if there's that perception, then it's complete BS & i genuinely believe rooted in stereotypes or racism. Also it's funny because I have heard similar things about nepotism, rich people buying seats at Ivy leagues, schools favouring rich donors, firms taking kids of clients or LP/donors, refrence in US. But I also believe picture is far bigger than these things, they might exist but isn't the whole story.
India have it's issues because it's still a growing country but the PE/IB/MBB are some of the most competitive (more than US) because of sheer volume, you have to be from cream of the cream of the creamy layer to even get to it. In India, IB recruit analyst out of MBA from top IIMs (management institute only) unlike here for undergrad, MBBs chose a select few from a pool of cream of top IITs, CA (Accountant top-50 rankers All of India), few other institutes & that's it, PE recruit out of MBB a select few.
Even if you think that perception is BS, it is the perception that many non-Indians have. It is not racist to observe that India has a deeply nepotistic business and political culture. Your major business houses are literally family dynasties and your political leaders are mostly someone's son or daughter. There was literally a story this week in my home country of the UK about an Indian billionaire's son, a board member of one of the largest companies in India with no academic credentials, buying his way to a professorship at a UK university. Nepotism exists in the west too but I'm not trying to move from the US to India so that only cuts one way here.
Nobody is questioning whether smart people come out of a country with 1bn+ people, of course they do. The issue is that nobody outside of India can verify whether any given position was earned on merit or nepotism. The Indians who actually make it in US finance largely did so by getting credentialed within the US system, which kind of proves the point that Indian credentials alone aren't enough regardless of how competitive they are domestically.
This is 100% accurate in terms of perception (I fall under this diaspora).
Yeah but is your fund good? WP and BX India are actually strong franchises I doubt anyone credible (eg at WP or BX NY) is concerned (if they’re in the know) with the merit of people from top Indian universities (in turn, entirely mechanical exam-based selection process, literally pure merit). It’s smaller Indian firms you’d need to watch out for - say the crop of 1000 Indian VCs or rando UMM shops.
Source: former WP/BX NYC AS
I was at a public MF as an associate before this role and am at a large cap UMM that has 1st quartile returns and money to deploy. I think there is just a lot of political correctness in all of these answers where you aren't getting a full picture of the view of the average American who is hiring at investing shops. For better or worse, India is known for having a lot of nepotism. When there is a very high supply of associates from public MFs who went o Harvard or Stanford after working in America, it's hard to justify choosing someone whose experience is outside of the western world. I never said it's fair, but it's an uphill battle.
Were you a performer in India? Amit and Viraj are highly respected as top investors globally at BX / WP and can easily sort you out post MBA at either firm.
There’s also a broader question of why you would want to do PE in the US which is highly saturated when India is a top performer in any firm’s PE portfolio.
And I wouldn’t listen to any of the jokers here. I would speak to the partners at the firm you worked at and start there (assuming you were a performer and if you won’t a performer, you’re screwed anyway).
I will complete my 2nd year in few months, i very well know two of them & infact, our firms are ready to have us back post-MBA in VP position after associate stint.
Seriously then, don’t screw around with it. Go back to your firm post MBA. First, either are excellent institutions. Second, you have the institutional support and contrary to what people have said above, the Indian operations are highly respected in both places. Third, you have time and the brand on the resume to figure out life.
Principal at BX. We have a lot of respect for BCP India and Amit has a very high standing within the firm. I don't think any less of them than the guys in London, Singapore, Tokyo, etc.
At the end of the day we have global comp for a reason and if the local teams weren't pulling their weight we wouldn't have them.
If anything, my prior for anyone coming from BX Mumbai is that getting a job there is so fucking competitive (30 seats vs. 1.5Bn population) that they'd run circles around any 22 year old we hire from Harvard. This isn't some offshore team that will be AI'd away, it's proper investing.
Thanks for understanding. And you are right, the major BBs (JPMC/GS/MS) all hires post-MBA IB analyst from India's top-3 IIMs (MBA institute), private Equity Recruiting in India happens at some top Domestic banks or largely out of MBB firms. It's tough as hell because the volume of graduates/post-graduates makes it 100x more competitive. If i talk about my experience, only reason I was shortlisted because I had an ALL INDIA RANK under 50 in India's competitive exams.
I know I am at quite disadvantage in Buyside in US anyway & i can understand that since US deals are quite different from India.
My only concern was is it discounted wholly or partially? Like Ohk may be I am not as competitive as someone from US market but would it be helpful in anyway for some Buyside (even if i a have to demote myself), I am not targeting any MF PE anyway.
this is almost certainly a fake comment
Well it appears you aren’t very good at English which could be a decisive barrier, although I have noticed the MFs have more and more people who have weak English.
The other problem is the perception that 0th/1st generation Indians are culturally nepotistic / clannish / overly servile to bureaucracy / cutthroat.
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