I want to make the jump from a Big 4 Transaction Advisory FDD / Valuation staff to private equity analyst/associate because I feel passionate about the industry. If I've excelled in this role and also have meaningful PE deals to talk about on my resume, is this a realistic jump? And if not, what would be the best path towards breaking in?
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Can’t speak for US / London, but in Europe (e.g., Germany) its possible to go from Big4 TAS to smallcap PE. But midcap PE almost impossible.
I am speaking about the FDD team not the valuation guys, they have it even harder (or don’t want to make the switch to PE).
I've never seen a direct transfer from Big 4 FDD/Val to investment team PE. I made the jump by doing banking inbetween, which is a pretty common path assuming you don't get into IB out of school.
For APAC - yes quite possible, I did something quite similar. But as you might expect only for the LMM/MM funds, and to be blunt the funds you will wind up at are going to be the less popular ones for various reasons.
At least in the US, it seems pretty unlikely to make a direct jump into PE from TAS, unless it was a boutique PE shop. A common exit from TAS would be IB, which a lot of PE firms recruit from.
I made the jump from big 4 valuation to IB last year, definitely very doable. Currently getting ready for PE recruiting now.
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