Hi guys, I recently posted about how I am an MBA student at an M7 trying to get a PE internship. I landed a job at a PE firm on the deal team for my summer internship. It will be an extended internship where I will start in March and work through the summer until August. Based on their fundraising timeline, I think they may be planning to raise a new one soon, so I think there might be a possibility of a return offer. I wanted to ask you guys here if you had any tips for me so I can hit the ground running? My pre-MBA background is: 3 years in management consulting doing CDDs and value creation projects and 2 years in corporate development. What should I do to be prepared when I start and what advice do you have for someone like me to perform well on the job? I'm a bit worried as my background is non-traditional.
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Congratulations on landing your top-choice PE internship! Based on the most helpful WSO content and advice from professionals who’ve been in your shoes, here’s how you can prepare and excel in your first PE deal team role:
Preparation Before You Start
Brush Up on Technical Skills:
Understand the Firm’s Strategy:
Leverage Your Background:
Network Internally:
During the Internship
Be a Sponge:
Excel in Due Diligence:
Master the Numbers:
Communicate Effectively:
Show Initiative:
Build Relationships:
Key Areas to Focus On
Fundraising:
Portfolio Management:
Investment Committee (IC) Materials:
Long-Term Success
Your non-traditional background is an asset, not a liability. Many PE firms value diverse perspectives, and your consulting and corporate development experience will allow you to bring unique insights to the table. Good luck—you’ve got this!
Network harder
What are you talking about? Should I network beforehand with my new teammates? Do you mean I should network with people to learn how to build an LBO?
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I'm not sure what the setup was for your time in Corp Dev, but I think one of the biggest adjustments moving from IB / consulting into PE is just needing to be substantially more proactive and thoughtful about your work. This includes not only ensuring you're avoiding any mistakes in output (models, analyses, and even qualitative summaries), but also thinking about next steps for a process before your seniors have asked you to and always considering what else could be helpful to drive a process forward. For example, when you get staffed on a new live deal, thinking about what unique angles for diligence there may be and proactively working on them (or at least over the summer perhaps suggesting them first to the team to show initiative)
As for now, I'd make sure your modeling skills are up to par by the summer since you'll not really have time to refine them when you are already in the internship and staffed + you want to make sure you avoid mistakes then
Coming back to say this was the hardest adjustment for me. A few months in and got a return offer. I functionally did most of the tasks that a PE firm does during my time in corporate development or consulting, but the quality required and the speed with which I needed to do things was a lot higher. People also just ask a lot more questions in PE, and it’s a lot harder to just go through the motions and complete a deal. Every assumption and every angle is questioned. This is very different than Corp Dev where you already know you want to make the deal and just need to do whatever it takes to get it through at the lowest price. Overall though, I love my job. Hours are a lot higher, but I feel like we have a lot more influence on the PE side compared to being on Corp Dev where you yourself barely have a say in what deals are pursued as it’s all tied to the company’s strategic and narrow roadmap and market
Congrats on it working out and getting the return offer! Sounds like a great outcome
Thank you for sharing, and congratulations on the return offer. Any advice for an incoming M7 MBA student looking to transition from IB or consulting into PE? Many people say it is nearly impossible without pre-MBA PE experience. What helped you stand out and ultimately secure the offer?
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