From Corporate to Private Equity: Pick a team

Not all PE Associates come from Banking/Consulting. Most did. But not all.

What roles within corporate America (NOT Investment Banking/Management Consulting firms) provide a recent grad with the background needed to land an interview at a private equity fund?

For example; I have seen/have met PE associates that come from:

• Corporate Development M&A Deal Team (basically internal facing banking)
• Corporate Strategy Team (basically internal facing consulting)

What about other departments? Are these the only two that can realistically get you into PE? What about....

• M&A Integration Team (works very closely with M&A deal team)
• Corporate Ventures Team (VC & PE are similar, top CVC's are very prestigious)
• Sales (I've seen some kids at growth PE shops who came from sales)
• Product Management (probably a better fit for VC than PE)
• Engineering (probably a better fit for VC than PE)
• Corporate FP&A (kind of a long shot but seems like similar skill set)
• Business Operations (long shot)
• Marketing (long shot)
• HR (long shot)

side note A; assume the corporation is extremely prestigious (i.e. Google/Amazon). side note B; I am well aware that 'mega' funds have a more stringent barrier to entry than lesser known PE firms.