Hello monkeys,
Long time no chatting with u all.
Hope everyone is fine and on-track to reach their career goals.
I switched from my internship in IB (think of Laz., Rotsch., Goldman) to a tier 2 Consulting firm in Europe (think of Roland Berger, A.T. Kearney, Oliver Wyman, not UK). I was wondering: how hard is to switch from a 2 years experience in Consulting to a UK PE position as Investment Analyst?
Would love to hear your stories.
Thanks, stay safe.
More and more doable. I made the switch from a similar name (but London) after 2.5 years via a LMM fund - 4-5 years ago this was much less common but now more so; plus greater diversity in needs (operating support, investment team, corp dev support, etc).
The biggest issue you'll face is the continental EU to UK. The search firms focus predominantly on London-based candidates. PE markets (especially MM) are regional (Benelux, Dach, France, Italy, UK/Ireland, Nordics) - and recruiters (and hiring managers) know this. Practically, this will possibly be the biggest hurdle you face.
Perhaps you should consider a two-pronged approach:
(i) Local PE or regional hubs of pan-EU firms in your area;
(ii) Pan-EU funds with only a London base who need local people (think Montagu as example)
In terms of preparation - just kill yourself on models, technical skills, and interview prep; and also learn the essentials of "thinking like an investor" - a big hurdle on the consulting answers in the transition to PE.
Love this. Very helpful, ty.
My goal is to move outside my country (mainly for future tax benefits when I will be back). London is the target being THE tier 1 market in EU.
Otherwise Germany or Spain prolly...
Any insights you can share on best PE/other funds to focus on?
"Best" in terms of:
1) W/L balance (i.e. Culture)
2) Salary
3) Exit Opps
Ciao theGodfather,
I’ll echo Carolus’ comments, it certainly isn’t impossible. There are a few things to consider though:
1) As you move further down in MM PE in London, you start to encounter firms that primarily invest in the UK. These firms are staffed with mainly British individuals and the majority of their investments are focused on UK / Republic of Ireland. A lot of them have direct sourcing models in part because of the publicly available data on pretty much any UK business of scale. This is unlikely to be a fit for you.
2) As you start to move up market, you start to run into more funds that invest pan-Europe and use London as their headquarters. Some of these have a physical presence in their target geographies, while some of them do not. There really isn’t any formula. If you look at the backgrounds of most of their employees, they tend to follow the American model of individuals who went to top schools, did investment banking / consulting, then transitioned to PE early in their career. Many of them also have MBAs, whether from the US or INSEAD or equivalent. These types of firms value someone being bilingual and having local country experience. I recommend you take a look at Sterling Square as an example of a firm that could be a good fit for you, profile wise: https://www.stirlingsquare.com
3) Many of the UMM have regional offices in their target geographies. They are ultra competitive to break into and staffed with the top candidates across Europe. Depending on your academics, you may have a shot at these firms coming from a Tier 2 consulting firm, particularly if your firm does consulting work for these clients.
The other thing to keep in mind is that Italy isn’t as hot a market as some of the other geographies (I know you didn’t expressly say Italy, but…). If you can also speak German, that would be a very good boost. Your best bet would be to start talking to headhunters as most all PE hiring goes through headhunters in London. You also want to make sure you talk to more than just 1 as the mandates are pretty spread out across a good 10+ headhunters.
I would say you face a bit of a challenge but it is certainly possible.
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