Graduating early - worth it or not?
I will begin working in an industry-focused coverage group as an investment banking analyst in August and want to hopefully work at a large PE firm with ample dry powder (MF/UMM) because the smaller funds in my industry have recently been destroyed - only the large players that can investment $150MM plus remain healthy.
I have the opportunity to start early at my firm, which will better position me to have deal experience to talk about during PE recruiting. Is it worth it? Should I graduate a semester early and begin working? Will it be that big of an advantage? My firm does not traditionally have a megafund placement history (think UBS/WF/DB/RBC) but has placed a few individuals into megafunds in the past so I will likely need any advantage I can get.
The alternate is to continue to train my sport (I play collegiately), travel, and missionary work while enjoying one last semester with my friends (and the beautiful women on campus).
This is reflective of my personal bias - but I would say it's not worth it. Your ability to get the placement you want out of a banking program is going to be determined by things like your performance, how well your senior bankers advocate for you, your transaction experience, the bank you're at, and sheer luck.
Of those five, the only thing that's likely significantly impacted by joining earlier is maybe getting six more months of transaction experience (yes you could argue that more time could make you perform better, make people like you more, etc., but I would argue that is marginal). It might give you a leg up, given that a lot of funds have started recruiting so early that often people have no deal experience when interviewing, but I don't think that advantage is worth missing out of 1/8th of some of the most fun 4 years of your life - you're about to start what's probably 4 of the longest years of your life.
Realize there are other ways to look at it, but if it were me, I'd stay in school and soak it all up.
What's with this idea of college being "the most fun 4 years of your life"? Seriously, I'm genuine in asking as a current UG myself. It's been a pretty bad overall experience thus far. I suppose the fun is if you were in some kind of fraternity? Is it actually even mor downhill from here because if so then what's the damn point. If I had to guess, I think this sentiment comes from older guys or something. No way this has been a fun experience at all and, if I could, I'd graduate now despite my supposed 'success' in recruiting.
i feel sorry for u dude