PE to Tech Advice
TLDR: Top CS Program -> MBB -> PE Assoc, which tech role (PM, SWE, Other) should I target to make $300k+ while fully remote? Extra points if I get some benefit for having done MBB
Hi Folks, I wanted to ask for some help navigating a potential career move back to tech. A little background on me: I went to a top (very top) CS program but ended up doing MBB consulting (one of McKinsey / Bain / BCG) for 2 years as a generalist to hopefully broaden my exposure out of school. I am now in a Private Equity Associate program and am deciding how to approach a potential move back to tech.
I’m looking for 2 out of the following 3 things in my next position, ideally all of them:
- At least $300k TC all / vast majority cash
- Remote / WFH, with international flexibility (personally don’t enjoy US cities). For me to tolerate SF / NYC I would need $500+
- Some “step up” as a result of my experience in MBB. These were 2 years of $90k TC and 80+ hour weeks, while my friends from college were making multiples working half as long; I’d be able to sleep better at night knowing this ordeal wasn’t a total waste :)
A couple other pieces of info that may be relevant:
- I develop and operate a side project in the crypto space, since ~1 year ago. It’s not a smashing success by any means, but I’m learning a lot in the process and keeping my coding sharp despite working outside the industry.
- I have begun grinding leetcode preemptively and expect to be interview-ready by the end of Q1.
I wanted to ask WSO which roles you’d suggest I go for, among SWE, PM, or something else entirely given my criteria above and experience. Additionally, would appreciate advice from others who’ve navigated a similar situation. Thanks very much for your help
Bonus Question: Let’s say hypothetically, I wanted to maximize $ earned for 3-5 years, after which I’d quit and start my own company. Which role (that I have a reasonable chance of being able to access given my background) would be best for that, and how much?
SWE is probably your best bet.
1. You should be at $300k within a year or two, if not immediately (if targeting the right companies).
2. Can definitely find a remote option.
3. You won't really get credit for MBB, but isn't a total waste (can help longer term as you move into management roles or fundraise).
Thanks, this is very helpful. In terms of initiating the change and not getting auto-dinged by my background, would you suggest the usual PE steps of finding VP-level alums and asking to chat?
Also, would I be applying for new grad roles? I know in the long term it may not be a “waste” but it would certainly feel that way when all my peers doing the same job are 5 years younger :) the past couple years have really changed my perspective away from long term comp (otherwise I’d just stay in PE), I’m trying to maximize comp now since nobody knows what the future holds
I think you'll be at an entry level role especially if aiming for FAANG or similar. There might be some one off opportunity at a startup where they bring you in at a higher level, but at the end of the day you haven't worked a day in SWE. PM roles might be more likely to bring you in "higher level", but I can almost guarantee that your 3-year comp as an SWE will be better regardless.
For the larger companies, it's less networking based but it's helpful to get a referral (I assume you have friends at these companies, based on your schooling). I would make sure your resume is up to date with the projects you've been building, reach out to any SWE you know to get a referral, and then you'll have to go through a hiring manager.
Get a SWE role at Citadel. New grads are making 475k lol.
Woah really?! I had no idea, that’s nuts! Was a really bad move to have passed on them for an internship in UG…
Except Robinhood
Look at teamblind right now. A few months ago everyone was flexing about their NW after huge stock jumps (on paper at least). Now everyone just complains and all the comments are saying "u should've diversified bro" (same people who only invest in tech stocks because it's all they know which has worked for the past few years). Unless it's a quant fund or Netflix then that's a different story.
Also pretty sure Netflix doesn't hire many new grads.
Leave it up to the “trust me bros” on WSO lol
With your background, could easily swing Corp Dev Manager / Sr. Associate roles in big tech. Not sure about TC but sure it's not too shabby (has been discussed on WSO), you're using your MBB / PE skillsets (vs. going to SWE), and hours are generally better vs. avg. PE associate. Given the CS background, if you hate working on deals, switching to product / data gigs would be doable as well if you have some other hook (i.e. industry exposure, a friend, etc.)
Know you prefer cash but if you'd be open to equity, growth-stage co's (Series C+) will have good TC packages too.
Thanks for that, up until now I basically saw Corp Dev as like a worse version of PE; less $, less optionality, same boring repetitiveness, same lack of critical thinking etc. Would you say I’m thinking about this the wrong way?
In terms of Product that seems to garner the most hype of any role these days, but to be honest I was a bit turned off because at my internships, the caliber of PMs was always much different than the caliber of SWEs :) Plus I did not enjoy doing PMO work at MBB, so I’m not sure this would be a fit either.
I guess my goal at this point is to find something that will get me into middle management as fast as possible. Then I could either leave to do my own company or jump around to make Director elsewhere. It seems like all the CTOs I met were in middle management at FAANG at some point earlier in their careers
I've never been in a Corp Dev seat so can't opine personally, but from my understanding it really depends on the company. Think FAANG corp dev can silo mid-level folks into becoming vertical-specific execution monkeys, but if you're in the first corp dev hire at a Series B/C company and helping to raise the next round, make a few strategic acquisitions, position for IPO, etc. then I think the experience can be much different.
Maybe Biz Ops / strategic finance is one to look into? Obviously lots of variation in what these roles actually mean but you are generally running analytics closer to the product / operating business vs. corp dev, but not actually building software or running dev sprints etc.
corp dev in tech is a stupid role, don't do it. unless its a highly acquisitive boomer ass tech company, product teams will drive the acquisition strategy. hard pass
SWE or PM in one these
Snowflake
Coinbase
Meta ( paying some fat stacks)
Google -duhhhhh
This is all I can think of off the top of my head
I did PE to tech and gonna say PM. It's the best mix of hard/soft skills plus good comp, though not as good as SWE. Issue with engineering is that I would imagine you're going to start at a lower equivalent level as an eng than PM, since there's less professional skillset overlap between the role and your background.
FWIW, I heard from a friend in product that people on his team with ~5 years of experience were getting poached for $300kish for SWE and mid/high 2's all in for product. Wasn't clear which market he was talking about so YMMV. I wouldn't expect anywhere near $300k cash at these levels - probably gotta be in finance for that.
Even in this market, I think $300K all-in is going to be a stretch. Unfortunately your PE experience really isn't that valuable to tech companies. There are ex-MBB people without the PE tag who don't have the comp expectations you have.
Considered this option myself with a somewhat similar background and ultimately realized that no tech company would value my experience as much as staying on the investing side. Closest would be Corp Dev, but there actually aren't that many highly acquisitive tech cos out there and they don't need very large teams so those roles aren't in high supply. And even then $300K+ is a stretch.
Someone else mentioned you could go for a SWE role. You of course wouldn't get any credit for MBB/PE so you'd start at entry level, which wouldn't get you close to $300K. You'd probably be somewhere in the $150-200K range initially.
I think your best bet if you're optimizing for comp is to actually look beyond the FAANG tier and march down the list of large but unsexy tech companies. Companies like Hubspot, Qualtrics, Bill.com that don't have quite as many people banging on their door. Especially look for ones that already have a lot of ex- MBB/PE ones there which is a good sign they pay well. I once got pinged by a recruiter for a role at LexisNexis. Didn't go too far down the path but they had so many ex-consulting types, and for such an esoteric company I have to imagine the only way they get so many folks like that is by paying top of market. Another option which I'm sure you're aware of would be PE-backed tech cos where you can get pretty attractive equity packages.
Edited my post a bit - I actually want to rephrase that I do think the MBB experience puts you in a different bucket. The PE experience does not. But most ex-MBB people aren't making $300K all-in at your tenure level and the PE experience doesn't change that.
Also I don't know if you've ever considered VC, but with your background imagine a lot of firms would love to have you. Maybe you're done with investing, but think a stint in VC would give you great perspective for starting a company one day as well as give you the comp package you're looking for.
Curious to hear your thoughts - have a friend who has been doing BD (M&A + partnerships) in a pretty nascent area of HCIT (PDTx). He did that during his consulting gig then took a role within a DTx company. If he wanted to go into the principal side in the earlier stage, would you consider that a compelling background or is it something he's better off focusing on other things?
Thanks for such a thoughtful reply! Extremely helpful and never even considered going to something like a PE-backed tech company but that sounds like a good idea.
In terms of VC, I definitely thought about that when recruiting but to be honest I don’t think I’d be any good at sourcing so it seemed like I shouldn’t go down that path. If you don’t mind me asking, do you work in the earlier or later stages? I think I’d really enjoy working in the super early stage (seed or series A), but from what I understand those firms are hit or miss and often don’t have juniors?
Overall my current seat isn’t too bad, just comp is a bit light, and I keep reading these stories of people making $500k+ two years out as an SWE. Maybe people who post that forget to mention it includes their RSU’s 10x haha
Key word here is "stories."
I've spent my entire career thus far in tech, and I don't know anyone making 500k+ two years out as an SWE.
I've heard of a select few anointed by the big name AI guys (Hinton, Bengio, Ng, etc.) commanding those salaries (or more), but these are not run of the mill engineers.
You need to lower your expectations.
If you are considering SWE vs. PE I have no idea why you would want to do Seed/Series A VC. It is the least quantitative/technical you can get in finance. Pretty much zero financial modeling/diligence since these companies are so early stage. Yes you would diligence the tech, but you have never really worked in tech and don't have any sort of niche domain expertise at this point in your career. It's pretty much all sourcing/networking and very much a "spray and pray" approach, which is as far away from PE as you can get.
If I were you I'd wait a few more years working in finance, network within the tech world, and consider joining an early stage start up as the initial "business person". You'll likely get to work across PM, BD, strategy, sales, finance, investor relations, etc. It's not glamorous but you'd get the tech experience you're looking for (i.e. working with the first engineering hires) and still put your finance and consulting experience to good use. However this highly depends on your risk tolerance and interests in being an early stage operator.
Don't know if you've looked at funds like Thoma Bravo or more growth oriented tech PE but that could also be a good move for you.
I work on the growth-stage team of a multi-stage firm. For growth-stage investing, there are definitely roles where the focus is on execution much more than sourcing. Every firm is a bit different, but know a lot of places would love to have an ex-PE person who understands tech to help crank through diligence.
Early-stage firms are definitely going to be clamoring for your skillset less.
I mean yeah that is going to include a lot equity comp and over the past few years equity comp turned out to be worth a lot. Market is certainly turning though...
enterprise saas sales
Ay ay delete this lol. Bro chill
This isn't a good role or you want to keep it low key?
this is the best role in tech hands down
Not sure if you’re trolling or being serious but if serious would love to hear the reasoning?
Seeing more and more folks from high finance move into tech sales lately
A recipe for a good technologist (SWE/PM/call it whatever) is computer science + mathematics + domain knowledge
Clearly you have 2/3 at least but assuming your career path - you are good with picking up numbers and patterns, so lets say you have it all.
If that is the case, Project management within a tier 1 financial institution would be your best shot as you will stay hands on coding, as well as learn the sensitivities of enterprise software engineering and infrastructure. There are so many initiatives like migration to cloud computing and ML adoption you could make an edge, given your background. Unfortunately, pure software engineering would be grant work all around and you would be pigeonholed to limited technology. Also, you are to senior to go into pure technology consulting and starting up with that would mean wasting time to get AWS certificates and other crap before you start real work. Only one thing, I would not advertise is your willingness to start your own thing if you want to maximise your current $$. You also will need to position yourself very well, as it might come across as you are jumping ships all the time. Make it look, like the third time is the charm. Hope that helps and good luck!
There are a few different roles you could do in tech - SWE, PM, Biz/Tech Ops, CorpDev, Strategy, etc. Given your background, I think the non-SWE roles make the most sense for you so you're not completely starting from scratch. You have a few options:
- Get an offer to join an APM program at a FAANG company/start-up (can be highly competitive but great opportunity for people who want to become PMs)
- Join a B2B start-up/unicorn as a Biz Ops/Sales Ops/Prod Ops manager (highly important/strategic roles for ops-heavy companies). I have friends who are ex-MBB or ex-finance and successfully lateraled into these roles.
- Corporate strategy or CorpDev roles in big tech
- Chief of Staff role at a start up (these are pretty popular/desired these days)
I'd be surprised if you got $300K+ starting out given your current experience, but for example I bet you could get Biz Ops manager offers for $250K+ TC (not all cash though) from large enough start-ups (e.g. Series C). APM roles are probably closer to $200K TC, but are usually on a trajectory to get promoted quickly.
If you wanted to be best positioned to start a company after working for 3-5 years, PM is the best role from a skills-learned perspective.
As someone in a similar spot (did a top finance program --> BB --> PE) who is looking to switch out of a transaction-based / prestige-heavy role, you kind of have to swallow a tough pill. If you want to move into a role where prestige matters less, then the prestige you've achieved to this point matters less. Long-winded way of saying you may need to take a pay-cut even if you think your MBB role means you are better suited for a role.
At the end of the day, your MBB experience helps you recruit for a new role, but you can't have your cake and eat it too (meaning, you go to a role with less focus on prestige and bring your prestige with you / expect it to keep your pay the same). Granted I admittedly don't know as much about the SWE roles, so perhaps that's a good avenue for you.
Sorry if I sound overly negative, but came to this realization a few months ago and helped me with my career discernment. Most of the Corporate roles at Series B / C companies are going to hover between $150-$175k all-in (~75% cash) at the ~4 years of experience mark.
Worked in research at long-only credit AM for a couple years. Got bored with the work. Quit and went to a coding bootcamp (had applied math/ stats from school) background. Now working as a SWE at a Machine Learning startup. Market is hot, even with <1 yr experience in tech, I frequently get hit by recruiters (both good and bad companies) for interviews.
Love the work. Best decision I ever made. Comp is similar to what I was getting. First job is hardest and most variable, depending on location conservatively think 90k-170k with no experience. If you are good, jumping around is easy and comp will increase rapidly.
Feel free to PM me.
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