Is it possible for a banking vp to move to PE?
Is it possible for a banking vp to move to PE? In what circumstances have you seen this happen? Is it possible at the Director or MD level?
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To the LMM with a title/paycut yes. Youll get comments saying their cousin billy went to a MF as a principal but unlikely.
This
I have actually seen this once. Friend of mine was a 1st year VP at a BB. Key swing factor in my opinion was he was in a specialized Real Estate group and moved to a new team that was launching in an existing MF. More vanilla roles, agreed would be much tougher and less common.
Basically never happens. Even at VP level at a tier 1 like GS
You can if you’re doing non core investing (ie joining the cap markets team)
I thought everything was possible when you're older and have a network, reputation and favors ...
I've seen it happen at the very senior level from PCA to Buyside Secondaries (Portfolio Advisors, Manulife, among others)
The broadly held view is that if you sit in banking for more than a year or two you get a banker brain and will be viewed as not being particularly thoughtful and rigorous.
So yeah, it’s very tough.
But there are coups all up and down Wall Street.
Dan Loeb used to be a shit eating fixed income sales guy after all.
Entirely up to your level of commitment and effectiveness of your hustle. The exceptions (like Dan Loeb that someone mentioned) are exceptions, because they found a way to unlock the back door of an opportunity ---> then flat-out killed it from there.
It's probably possible like this person's case, but it's definitely not common. I would reach out to someone who has done it and ask them
Dude wtf, he did 2 years as an analyst in Wells Fargo then became VP at Moelis??? I've never seen that before, something is not adding up
Presumably this person got promoted to VP while at Moelis and came in as an associate or analyst.
Agree with the person who works at MS. People will often label their positions improperly on LinkedIn by listing only their most recent position for the entire experience
This is not a possibility question but in my mind, a self development question.
Are there VP/Directors that I would hire for my team? Yes. Exceedingly rare? Absolutely.
Banker brain is real but no one has a gun to your head that says you must have banker brain on at all times.
Imagine you are in the US to even ask this question but it happens all the time in London. Usually the average person stays in IB for 2 to 3.5 years until they go to PE but I have seen experienced VPs go to places like CVC as a senior investment executive (Senior Associate) with a shorter tenure to the next promotion.
Agree with the consensus, not likely
IB senior focus and skillset is deals, deals, deals, what price and structure will both sides agree to. Who cares if they are good, just get them closed. PE skillset is much more thinking through what is a good investment, what is the right price, what structure works for us and how will we feel about this in 5 years.
Not intentionally trying to make PE sound more intellectual, I think they are roughly equal. But the skillset is just different enough at a senior level it gets hard to make the jump. It's doable, but you don't often see BB -> MF for a reason.
It is absolutely possible. I, as well as several of my friends and colleagues, have moved from BBs to PE at the VP, Director or junior MD level.
It partly depends on hiring cycles, but the number one thing is to decide you want to do it, and then spend the significant amount of networking time and preparation time necessary to make it happen. You also have to spend time thinking about how a PE job is different than banking, and be able to reframe the things you have worked on to show how you would have approached them if you had been in PE. It helps if you can get some buyside advisory deals that are actually meaty, but if you can’t, working on sponsor sellsides can still be useful.
Ultimately, most of the people who don’t succeed at making the shift were either talking suits to begin with, or give up after they didn’t get traction for the first three, six or twelve months of trying.
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