McKinsey to PE? Difficulty breaking in?
How difficult is it to break into top buyout funds coming from McK, as opposed to coming from GS/MS/other BBs. Any first-hand experiences?? Are there large funds that don't take ex-McK people at all?
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it's hard to get into top buyout firms from pretty much anywhere, though McKinsey does place well if you know you want to do PE...i know a few former McKinsey folks at Blackstone, Bain Capital, golden gate, etc.
if your goal is to get to a megafund after 2-3 years, a top group at GS or MS will likely be the surest route there. with the exception of bain cap, the majority of pre-MBA associate classes at the top funds are overwhelmingly bankers, with 2-3 spots for consultants
that said, it can definitely be done coming from M/B/B -- the well-beaten path is to Bain Cap, but there have been people from my class and the classes before me who have received offers at Blackstone, Carlyle, TPG, THLee, etc. part of your chances will depend on your own personal knowledge of investing and maybe even on your experience the summer before McK -- while they don't expect you to build an LBO from scratch, you are expected to understand the mechanics of a simple one (which really aren't difficult to learn). you should also understand the basics of valuation...
as is probably the same in banking, you need to be proactive about recruiting and speaking with headhunters if you want to end up at a megafund. don't stress if your banker friends are getting jobs lined up, because most of these funds bifurcate the process into 1) banker slots first, 2) consulting slots next (the only exception i've seen to this has been carlyle)
from a personal and biased perspective, i believe experience at M/B/B gives you a firmer base to perform the strategic due diligence for private equity investments that interviewers like to hear about, which many bankers lack when asked in an interview to assess a potential target. if you have capable modeling skills and working finance knowledge (proven on your resume), i personally believe M/B/B is a better setup for PE. if you don't have these quant skills developed, banking might be a better option.
FreeCashFool -
You say many megafunds have 2-3 spots in their associate class for ex-consultants, with the rest being ex-bankers. But how large is the entire class? I mean, what is the PROPORTION of consultants?
i don't think there are any megafunds out there that won't consider you just because you're at McK
**there are plenty of smaller/MM funds that only take bankers.
Great comment! Thanks.
Very good answer from freecashfool.
As one clarifying point, many smaller and lower-MM funds exclusively hire ex-bankers because they can more easily hit the ground running than can ex-consultants (e.g., building financial models on day 1).
Since even the largest funds don't really have much in the way of formalized training programs (with the exception of Bain Cap, which does), smaller funds that have very few (if any) other associates make it substantially more difficult for an ex-consultant to make his / her way down the financial curve.
I was using an example, but it clearly varies by fund. For this particular example, it's a class of ~11-12 where you'll have 2-3 consultants (that excludes other geographies outside of N.A. and divisions). Another firm example I have is 1/8 in N.A....
This is a complete SWAG but my guess outside of Bain Cap, the megafunds will hire about 10-20% of their classes from M/B/B -- the rest mainly from banks.
Funds are becoming more and more open to hiring consultants (as evidenced by an entire process dedicated to them)... I would still argue that it's an uphill battle, but a better route unless you're at a top group with GS/MS. Your chances at PE in general become pretty solid when you factor in Berkshire Partners, Golden Gate, and other guys like Lee Equity (I believe the former two to be exceptional shops).
there are more experienced people on this board than myself, make sure you direct your questions at the forum as a whole if you want the best perspectives
http://www.berkshirepartners.com/who_team_assoc.shtml
Thanks for the info!
At Berkshire there are more associates coming from McKinsey/Bain than all IB combined...that is weird - is there something different about this firm that I should know?
McKinsey to Blackstone (Originally Posted: 11/28/2010)
The Moelis vs McK vs UBS discussion made me curious about one thing:
Is megafund possibile after McKinsey?
I mean, sure, McK is gold on your resume. But still i though that lo land a PE megafund you HAD to come from IBD, and that the only PE you got after top consulting was smaller shops. Could someone correct me if I'm wrong?
Is it possibile to jump to KKR/BX pe after two or three years of mckinsey? Or bain/BCG to that effect?
And what if McKinsey offers you an mba after two years? To land a megafund offer you should refuse the offer and try to get into PE before the mba?
But still, refusing an mba offer from McKinsey? Can someone clear this out for me?
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