Private Equity at SWFs

Hi everyone,

Long time lurker here, forum was really helpful in terms of getting an IB job at a BB. For background, I am from Eastern Europe and went to college in the US, studied a STEM degree and have been working on OPT for almost 2 years (incl internship). My H1B application was rejected last year and if I don’t get it this year, I will have to look at options outside the US. No PE firms have really wanted to talk to me as I only have 3 years of work authorization (1 more to go).

I have considered going to London, but not too excited about that at the moment and hoping to stay away from Europe a bit longer. A friend of mine recently mentioned Sovereign Wealth Funds (Abu Dhabi, Qatar, Dubai, Singapore) as something I should look into, since many of them do PE. I have particularly been reading up on ADIA and seems like they are doing a lot of their own PE deals (partnering with megafunds).

Concern is that this would not be considered a “real” PE experience when I want to take my next step, to a PE fund in Europe or maybe even USA.

Would love to hear people’s thoughts. Do you think SWFs give real PE experience, and do you think they keep career doors open? Obviously I am far off from even starting any application / networking process but would really appreciate some insights.