How to position yourself for early PE exit
I am an incoming IB Analyst at GS / MS / JPM, starting in July next year. However, I strongly disliked every aspect of IB (the boring / repetitive work, the brutal hours, the horrible culture). I've tried recruiting for other industries (consulting / PE) without any luck as the market for FT seems absolutely brutal at the moment. It seems that my only choice is to start in IB but I would strongly prefer to exit ASAP (after 6-12 months) into PE.
I'm wondering which steps I should take to position myself for such an exit. What type of deals should I push to get staffed on? At what point in time can I start reaching out to recruiters? What type of workstreams except for modelling should I try to get high exposure to?
6 months is not happening unless it's some terrible no-name shop. You can jump ship closer to 10-12 months but for PE these will almost all be not-great LMM type firms, given you have minimal experience. Also, keep in mind most of these early exits will not buy out your bonus since anyone leaving that quickly is clearly doing so for a reason.
1st years have no control over their staffing and you should not try to push for any specific types of deals or workstreams until at least 8+ months in (and even then, it's more that the stars get put onto quality deals, or you asking for more broad exposure like to a certain vertical, rather than you being able to push for specific workstreams). 1st years are expected to take even the worst pitches with a shit eating grin, just the way it is.
HHs reach out to you, not the other way around. If your friends get HH emails that you don't, it's fine to forward and ask them to put you on their list.
Honestly I would try to get through year 1 and leave after bonus. You will start getting better opportunities at that point.
Everything you hate about IB is 3x worse in PE. The % of people who hated IB but are fine in the PE is very very low.
I did a few internships in PE and I do agree that many of the aspects in PE are similar to banking. Meanwhile, you get more responsibility which makes the job more fulfilling. The job is also much more analytical as you are trying to figure out whether something is a good investment or not, whereas in banking a lot of focus is put on marketing / materials rather than deep analysis. While the hours are only slightly better, your work is much more predictable. You often know what you are going to work on over the coming week / weeks while in banking you often just know what you are going to do in the coming hours / days. As a result, you are less likely to have weekends / nights blowing up out of nowhere. I also find the culture to be better in many cases because people plan on staying in PE for longer so they care more, most people plan to leave ASAP so no one really cares about culture.
This is all kind of idealistic, and the experience as an intern is not always true to how your life would be. As a junior in PE you will still spend a lot of time on useless materials rather than "deep analysis"... and you will 100% still get blown up on weekends and nights, just with a bit less frequency than IB.
It's often a slight improvement after 2 years in IB, but if you hated IB and can't even get through a year, it is likely not going to be much better for you. Not to say don't do PE, but corp dev will actually check your lifestyle boxes.
You hate IB so you want to go to PE early? You’re delusional
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