IB Analyst vs PE Analyst Job Offer

If I take the PE offer now, I’d be stepping off banking early, but I’d be getting into the seat I actually think I want long term. And in my head, after 2-3 years in PE I’d have stacked experience: some IB + direct PE experience. My hope is that this makes me more competitive for the bigger PE funds in my hometown (~$6B+ AUM) when I eventually try to make the move back.

So I’m stuck between two paths of staying on the IB path and recruit later, and take the risk of receiving no offer in the future, or jump to PE now as an analyst. If you were in my shoes and your end goal was PE, what would you do?

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Yes. The lowest IB job I would take over a $1.5B AUM fund is at William Blair (no offense to anyone there), but lower than that it gets a lot harder to interview, especially with a new MM boutique that your interviewers likely never heard of. All from my personal experience of 1) working at a top BB, and 2) being on the other side as an the interviewer of candidates for PE.

 

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