6 Comments
 

Extraordinarily unlikely. Even at the friendliest of firms that is a very hard move to make - FP&A to PE just doesn't happen, too big of a jump. I would call it next to impossible between SA and FT unless you have prior PE experience, and perhaps very slightly easier after a year or two at the firm but still extremely unlikely. 

MF REPE is a very elite job and even internally, finance and accounting is just not going to interest them to be brutally honest. You'd be way, way better off starting out FT at a smaller REPE firm, or real estate capital markets. 

 

Not trying to be rude here, just 100% straight with you - this is an impossible move, especially as just an intern, and might jeopardize your return offer in your intern division if you network outside of your team to a clearly superior group / ask for a transfer. Operations to IBD on the sellside is a tough road and usually takes years and a few lateral steps - look up some threads on here for evidence. Operations to MF PE is just absolutely not happening in 1 chess move as an intern "lateral". This is like asking if working concessions at a NFL stadium will help get you on the team. Get a return offer and use it to get a different job at a different company.

Also operations jobs, and the tasks you listed, are back office. Not that it really matters, but just to say if you have other companies in the works for FT, go for it. Ops exits roles are slim and you should use the excellent brand name to jump to a different FT shop that is closer to what you want.

Sorry again if this seems rude, just wouldn't want you to lose a return offer over something as clear cut as this. RE is definitely possible, look up some smaller capital markets firms or regional REPE funds

 
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FWIW, I think you can still get interviews for FT roles after the internship if you can craft the right story. It should be oriented around how you interned in FP&A, but took the initiative to speak to professionals on different teams (incl. the investment professionals on the real estate PE team), which sparked an interest in that discipline. From there you used your correspondence with those professionals to further your knowledge in the field in addition to doing your own research on intricacies of RE PE investing. If you have a solid GPA, have a tight story, and can demonstrate that you have taken the initiative to further yourself in RE, I think you have a shot at external RE opportunities. It will be too difficult to lateral within Ares, but if you can do all of the aforementioned, I'm sure you will get some looks from RE brokers, smaller RE PE funds, etc. that will get your foot in the door. 

 

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