With how much on cycle is pushed up each year it seems like target status is mattering more and more. I am from a nontarget flagship state school and interning with a top group at (gs tmt/ evr m&a). I am looking at mf/umm funds in preparation for on cycle but Idk if I have a chance over ivy kids. 1550+ sat, non diversity if that matters for on cycle.
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From one of those groups you will be fine. I'm at a UMM from a non-target and a worse group.
any thoughts on how hard it is to go from non/semi-target from mid-tier BB to UMM PE? Wondering if it would be better to be at a reputable MM PE shop out of undergrad and try to recruit up (or stay).
first year in a similar situation that it sounds like you were in - any chance you could PM?
It would be very group vs. MM shop dependent. My general advice is to do IB before PE - I think it makes you better prepared for the Associate job (some PE analyst jobs are not the best) and if you decide you don't like finance your exits will be broader.
Non-target + Mid-tier BB (bottom tier group) + Average-to-Mediocre SAT and made it to a MF.
Got pretty far with a couple MF during on-cycle, but didn’t make the cut. Ended up getting my current role off cycle.
If you network, interview prep, and have decent interpersonal skills you’ll be fine coming from a top-tier bank/group with scores like that.
You get off-cycle interviews the same as on cycle, a recruiter sends an email titled "City Mega Fund Opportunity 20XX" and you indicate interest. If you pass the recruiter/fund resume screen, then they reach out and invite you to interview. That's where the process starts to differ. Off-cyle is substantially more drawn out, so subsequent rounds could be multiple days (and even weeks) apart.
The majority of seats are filled during on-cycle, but not all of them. Some seats are set aside intentionally for off-cycle, some come about from increased deal flow, and others crop up from people who reneged. On-cycle was ridiculously early pre-COVID (think September/October of your first year), so most first-years were still ramping on to their first live deals. It's hard to assess the quality of analysts after only a couple of months on the desk so some funds opted to set aside extra seats for off-cycle when they could better assess the candidate quality.
Should not have a problem as long as you know what you’re getting yourself into and put in the work. Most non-target friendly can definitely be found with research. If you made it to top bb, you can definitely grind out pe, just a matter of grit/understanding buy-side recruitment from undergrad/and a little bit of luck. Pm if you have any specific q’s
non-target + non-banking background and still made it into an UMM
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