Moving from Debt/Equity Co-Invest to Direct PE?

How does an Analyst from a private credit investing/equity co-invest role at a place like Hamilton Lane compare to traditional IB Analysts when recruiting for direct PE roles?

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Fund of funds is a drastically different world from private credit with equity co-invests... Depending on the shop, you may be building entirely your own view and you will definitely be negotiating credit docs if you aren't doing syndicated bullshit.

Personally never interviewed a potential candidate from one, but from the people I know at those shops, I'd say they have a good chance of competing against a traditional IB analyst for a seat. I would think that a lot of the bad habits I have to break with IB analysts in order to pivot their mindset to that of an investor vs a service provider won't exist.

 

That's one route. Haven't ever tried to make that specific move so I can't be of much help there. But I imagine a 2 year analyst wouldn't have a very hard time getting a good look for an associate role. I think the main reason it is less common is that most of the time, people are quite happy to stay in mezz once they're there. The comp and work life balance is pretty solid.

 

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