PE Recruiting After MBA

Question

Hi all. Curious if you were a private equity associate at a mm fund (Latest fund ~$2n) then go to a top MBA program (Harvard) how difficult is it to get a new private equity job post MBA? Do you have to go down stream or are there opportunities to move to a slightly larger fund?

butcherer · Accepted Answer

Might be true if all your friends are diversity candidates (women / hispanic / african american). Unlikely otherwise. Also PE internships have low conversion rates into full-time offers (50%, sometimes 25%) so while it is definitely a strong foot in the door it is not a guarantee of being able to get into PE post-MBA.

Downstreaming is definitely the norm outside of diversity candidates.

getrichquick · Answer

Yes. I would say 60-100% who want to, go back. Though I would say many people had to make sacrifices. E.g. someone really wanted tech and got consumer. Someone really wanted Chicago and got Boston. Someone really wanted large cap and got a solid MM.

Factors:
1) Background - far and away the most important. If you have GS/EB -> large cap/umm -> HSW you will have tons of opportunities. If you have ok bank -> LMM you'll get looks but maybe not quite as many.
2) Interview performance - If you have the background you will get 15-30+ interviews and plenty of chances to screw up.

mtnmmnn · Answer

There are more pre-MBA positions than they are post-MBA and funds tend to give their best performing associates return offers (ie. a lot of fund don't recruit much or at all). The vast majority of MBA students coming from PE want to go back. A lot of MBA students without PE background would like to get in. Therefore, competition is absolutely fierce and on average, people move downstream.

Magrif78 · Answer

If you're at one of the top schools they have robust career services (similar to what you see in undergrad) & the larger firms will come on campus and host info sessions / networking sessions at local restaurants and recruiting continues from there. Typically a much much longer process than what you might have experienced during Pre MBA PE. They are much more focused on limiting false positives since in theory it is a partner track position

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PE Recruiting After MBA

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PE Recruiting After MBA

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