MS M&A/MC/Menlo vs MF PE Analyst

Hey everyone, I’m a summer intern at a MS M&A / MS Menlo type group—pretty guaranteed exits to H&F, Blackstone, KKR from what it seems after 2 years. Still not super sure what I’m really interested in and haven’t spend much time at all studying technicals and paper LBOs are pretty complex and confusing so not sure PE is for me, but think it’s a good next step. Not sure what industry I want to do but tech PE seems solid since I like CS and tbh I want to maximize long term comp at a partner type seat since that’s why I wanted to do IB in the first place.
 

how should I think about doing a KKR TMT (Menlo or NY) / Warburg SIG/Tech / Bain Cap / Vista Tech analyst program vs staying at MS for 2 years, getting the brand, and locking down a tippy top H&F/Blackstone offer? Would PE analyst be a better experience for culture/learning than a historically top IB group, and is it better experience wise to spend 4 years at a Warburg/Vista vs 2 in top IB and 2 in PE? Would one be better positioned to lateral to H&F from MS or another PE?

27 Comments
 

The total bankers these three firms hire is likely less than 10 (H&F hire half their class with consultants). Assume GS TMT and all the Rx groups shat the bed, are there even enough seats for an entire class of MS bois?

 

I did banking so can’t speak to the MF analyst experience personally (though have peers who did it) but tend to advise people in these situations to do banking
 

Analyst experience and training varies quite a bit at PE firms (I’m still not even sure why these firms hire analysts)

Doing banking, especially at a group like the one you mentioned, gives you great training, deal flow, network, etc + opportunity to place into a really strong PE seat (though like others mentioned none of the ones you cited are “guaranteed” by any means)

 

Banking culture is more fun / “we’re all in this together” mentality vs PE which is a little more stiff (people are actually trying to build careers)

I think training is more standardized in banking - they’ve churned out analysts for years and years

 
Most Helpful

If you think Paper LBOs are pretty confusing, you’re going to get bent over and fucked in the full time processes for any of these firms.

 

Yeah but I passsed the interviews for probably ones of the top group on the street, getting the technicals mostly right with pretty hard accounting questions like deferred revenue going up and perpetuity vs multiple method. Obviously I don’t know any complex topics like SBC, write downs, accretion dilution, or lbo but all of my group is going kkr / bx / h&f so I feel like I should be fine with technicals

 

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