MM PE out of undergrad worth it?
I’m a current sophomore and took an offer for a summer 2024 internship with a MM PE shop (~$3B AUM). I really like the firm and the people and I know I could secure a FT offer. However, I’ve heard from other people and online that going straight into PE without a top brand name can hinder future career prospects. I’m not sure I’m in the ideal position optionality-wise. After I took the offer I stopped recruiting. Did I make a mistake?
stop overthinking about "future career prospects". If you like the job, then stay there
Started at a MM PE shop as an analyst and career has recently gone sideways after being managed out. I will offer this advice to avoid my fate: you need to make sure that you are getting proper training, and you need to take a ton of initiative in this role. When you're in PE, particularly at a brand name MM / UMM / MF, you will be surrounded by very smart colleagues - make sure to shadow them and be a sponge every step of the way. If you are passive or do not take initiative, it will be challenging to develop a strong reputation internally. You will be "competing" for promotion against individuals who have had ~2 years of top IB experience, which by default requires hundreds of hours of reps in PowerPoint and Excel. With that skill gap in mind, you need to make sure that a) the firm is giving you adequate training to replicate that experience or b) you need to work on those skills on the side using Wall Street Prep, Peak Frameworks, etc., otherwise you will not be promoted. In the event that you are not promoted, you may find it more challenging to lateral if you're not coming from a blue chip MM analyst program (e.g., Audax). I really struggled to get interviews for associate roles through headhunters, and I was explicitly told by some of these groups that they typically only interview IB analysts or consultants, and that despite my relevant deal experience I'd be a "non traditional" candidate as it would be hard to benchmark my training compared to someone coming out of a large IB analyst program .
Not saying any of this to dissuade you - I think starting off in PE is literally a golden ticket for the right person in the event that you get directly promoted to associate. However, you really need to take initiative and be able to hit the ground running in a more unstructured environment to make it work. Otherwise, you end up with potentially poor training, weaker branding, and less exit opportunities.
Happy to provide additional details on my experience / how to avoid similar pitfalls if it's helpful. Best of luck man, you got this.
Can you I PM you, similar boat and need advice.
100% agree with you. Also started at a MM PE shop as an analyst out of undergrad. Thankfully things have gone well for me (so far), but lots of that has come due to luck and my entrepreneurialism. It honestly took me probably 18 months to fully ramp up into now being treated like an associate would in terms of responsibility. It took countless nights of taking initiative and practice modelling on some random P2P targets (luckily things got quiet this fall so i could afford taking the time to practice). I really would only recommend people going the MM PE route straight out of undergrad if they are very self-motivated / willing to put themselves out there.
Regarding promotion to associate, my fund normally would promote to senior analyst for a year first making the analyst/sr analyst program 3 years in total. Pretty shitty given that kids are able to go from IB -> PE Associate in barely 12 months now but it is what it is. Happy to answer any questions.
If you actually want to be in PE long-term, absolutely yes you should pursue this. Why would you go through the slog of banking just to end up in the same spot in the same amount of years or potentially even a year behind? If you're not sure what you want to do, I still think PE makes more sense - the skillset is broader, there is a layer of critical thinking not utilized in banking, the work is more interesting, you learn more in general, and so many other reasons. "Brand name" thing is still relevant, although not nearly as relevant as it used to be. A fund with ~$3bn AUM is impressive enough on its own, and it says a lot that you were able to land it straight out of undergrad, which not many can. If you can prove that you're able to get promoted within that role, you will be viewed as even more desirable. Notwithstanding some kind of a negative outlier experience in terms of the work you are doing, I suspect that you will realize you made the right decision a year or so into your full-time. Having been on both sides (banking and PE), to me, this is a no-brainer. I've learned 10x more in 2 years of PE than I learned in 2 years of banking.
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