I'm a first-year analyst currently at a low-tier BB (eg. UBS, DB, Barclays, whatever's considered "low-tier" these days) at a relatively specialized coverage group (energy, power, infra, etc). The group is small and isn't the top one by any measure, but it isn't a bottom performing group either.
Deal flow has been dry recently, though I was fortunate enough to be staffed on the two promising live deals (not closed). Worked on a few capital raises and many strategic pitches (IPO, sponsor buyside)
I'm thinking about pursuing MM PE, though undecided on industry focus - how difficult would it be to recruit in this area, considering I haven't had the wealth of execution experience that other analysts may have had? From a target school with high GPA (3.9) and test scores, if it matters at all.
What can I do to overcome the lack of bank brand and/or execution experience? Looking for any advice you guys may have.
Cheers.
Bump!
Academic background will be a big boon. PE firms care more about academic pedigree than banks.
Obviously, it would be much easier if you were in Morgan Stanley M&A or Goldman TMT, but you should still be able to secure a position. You probably won't get to be especially picky.
A lot depends on your story, how good of an impression you make on recruiters, technical skills and a lot of luck...
For technicals, make sure you know how to make a clean LBO from scratch under 2 hours. For a basic template, check out MultipleExpansion.com. For more advanced stuff, go to Macabacus.com.
There are a lot of good threads on here about interview prep, too.
Thanks for the advice bridge_troll - how do you know if you've made a great impression on headhunters? I feel all my initial meetings went well, though none seemed awesome; just seemed like normal recruiter meetings.
Do people ever follow up with a second meeting at all if their preferences / resume has changed?
Everything said here so far is accurate.
Your academic pedigree will really carry you, you'd be surprised. 3.9 kids are never considered dumb, so seeing that halfway down your resume will immediately quell any rising notion that you're at the bank you're at because you couldn't remember the answers to tougher interview questions. This is especially true for target schools. It almost paints the scene for a softball question "So, why'd you pick X-bank?"
If you get that from someone, you're gold. It's now a sales job. You need to explain with clarity and conviction why you had an interest in that specialized niche and just how lucky you were to be able to interview for it, get selected out of the 100-person analyst class, and be staffed on the deals you were. Capital raises aren't bad deals. Every single company has to fund itself to stay alive. If you speak about them in an embarrassed way or omit mentioning them altogether, you've made a mistake. Being able to speak intelligently about the why behind that corporate doing the raise in the way it did, not the simple what of the raise, will set you apart.
I realize now that I've omitted the most important point that makes my prior paragraph make more sense: you need to run your own process. The more specialized the group you're in, the more specialized your exits can be.
Here's a link to https://www.wallstreetoasis.com/forums/minimum-time-before-lateralling#…</a">another post I made about a week ago where I described a guy that's turned into a pretty solid acquaintance that I hope progresses towards a stronger friendship. He parlayed a role in a group really similar to yours into his own literal dream job.
In your shoes, I would be finding every warm 'in' I could for every single specialist fund that matches your experience. Trust me; they'll take the interviews that headhunters set up, but they're going to be the generic 3.7/3.8/3.9 kids from top product groups at GS/MS and the EBs. Even the ones who 'focused' aren't going to be as specialized as you.
Ban from your mind the notion that your experience is inferior, because a partner at an infrastructure fund isn't as worried about your quantitative knowledge from executing deals as he is whether you understand all the 'why' levers that go into a good deal. The reason people value transaction experience is because it often correlates fairly positively with at least a directional understanding of those levers. If you can prove you grasp the levers, whether you have the experience or not starts to become an afterthought (as long as you know enough of modeling to not be an embarrassment).
Good luck.
Thanks a lot APAE - super helpful and appreciate the insight. Do you mind if I PM you a few quick questions?
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