I’m an incoming MBB planning on doing on-cycle. I know many consultants do this after the first year but I’d rather do it earlier. Any tips/thoughts? Is this kind of move more difficult? Thinking main obstacles would be lack of deal experience/DD experience to talk about in interviews. Is this move feasible or better off doing one year first? Would be targeting consultant-friendly MFs.
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Totally fine as long as:
(i) Prepared to address desire to wrap program early (assume most MBB programs are 3 years and you'd only do 2)
(ii) Sufficiently prepared to recruit (pretty much entirely from self-study given MBB training won't help much) (i.e., prepared for financial modeling/case study, accounting questions, etc. as some firms will go easier on consultants but you'd rather not bank on leniency)
(iii) Compelling talk track on interest in PE
Ideally you have a relevant internship from junior summer that you can reference for some work/deal experiences but not overly concerned there given you'll be on-par with other on-cycle candidates (where college resume is unfortunately the focus).
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