People who don't get into PE are failures?
Let's assume that corp dev is a boring option and a lot of people don't want to go in because of the slow promotion speed or whatever.
Do 90% of bankers go into PE and corp dev?
If that assumption holds, and if someone couldn't get into PE, either due to lack of trying or lack of M&A exp or lack of competency, where the heck do people go? HF and B-school doesn't count.
In a nutshell, are PE people all success stories and masters of the universe? Seems that carried interest is really something.
If I don't go the PE route but do say strategy at some industry company, does that make me a loser?
I don't think anyone would be a failure in any executive management position. At those levels of income and bonus/package, nobody would be considered a failure.
1) PE/VC is one option, and the range in this field is huge. It could be a CVC, or one of the various PE shops.
2) They could go into the industry, not only through CorpDev, but also more general as a professional. I have seen professionals go into accounting, consulting, or general managers into industries they liked.
3) Open up shop. Whatever a person might like, there is an opportunity to craft the world in different ways with your own business.
No one is a loser for choosing what they actually want to do, successfully. But there are a few losers who are doing a job they hate only because they see their peers gunning for it. Also nothing wrong with doing a quick stint and then hopping out after deciding it’s not for you.
OP here. Actually don't care for MF/UMM PE. Got insecure occasionally because a buddy of mine just pulled it off coming from a non-stellar background. I know this sounds cringy, but it's true.
In the Bay Area, I commonly see people go to venture-backed startups and get a ~cool title~ like “Manager, Finance and Ops Strategy” or whatever. WLB can significantly improve, but comp will stay relatively flat.
More like people who do get into PE are either masochists or extremely driven. Not achieving something as arbitrary as a very specific white collar career path doesn't make you a failure, it just means it either wasn't the right place for you or you genuinely weren't that interested.
As others have echoed, not getting into one very specific niche of white collar work doesn't make you a loser. In life you either win or you learn - and if you really wanted PE, you'll keep trying until you get it.
What makes you a loser is sticking in a career, relationship, situation etc that you hate because of outside pressure / desire to fit in.
Let me flip the premises around: people who blindly go into PE are sheep (I was one so I would know). I’d rather talk shop with someone who intentionally went into LMM Corp dev than some lemming who went to MF PE just because his cohort did too.
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