Private Equity Recruiting from B School v MBB
Hi all!
Little about me- current BigLaw RX/SS attorney (with a dash of M&A experience) at a top NYC firm (V10) considering applying to B School. Took the GMAT immediately after undergrad and scored a 720 with a 47 Verbal and 41 Quant. Graduated with a sub 3.0 GPA from undergrad but graduated from law school with a 3.4 (top third of my class). I have about 3 years of WE and retained multiple leadership roles on campus and engaged in a variety of community service activities. Additionally, I have 0 student loans from either undergraduate or law school (multiple scholarships).
My ultimate goal is to break into private equity in an investment seat.
100% am trying to avoid anything IBanking related. Weighing trying to break into consulting (MBB) and then recruiting from there into PE against doing MBA recruiting.
My question is: 1) Is an MBA worth it? and, if so, 2) What schools should I realistically be applying to?
There will always be exceptions but for the average person with your stats/background expect that you will have 0 shots at a PE role post-MBA so perhaps MBB is the better choice here
Why are you not considering SS/Distressed debt? I see lawyers jumping over to the investment side very frequently - shops such as SVP are full of ex-kirkland people.
PE is going to be very difficult post-MBA without prior PE experience. MBA's only add value if you already have a very solid background - I did one at a good school and only ex-PE guys got good PE jobs.
Echoing the above--I would not expect or even try to pursue PE post B school without any prior experience.
From what I've seen, there are 5 ways that people get into PE:
1) Banking
2) MBB consulting (sometimes Tier 2 like OW or LEK, but not as common)
3) Former B Dev or M&A at a high profile startup, usually director level (seen more in Venture/growth than buyout PE)
Those two make up the vast, vast, vast majority of candidates. After that:
4) Diversity hires where a large PE fund is padding their DEI numbers by adding a a POC, woman, LGBT, etc. to their roster (This can technically be done post MBA, more common than a straight white male doing it)
5) Daddy is a big exec or partner at a fund and has connections so he helps you get placement even though your background is like software development or something like that, or they just bring you into their family office fund
So if you are 100% sure that you want to go into PE, then you should start trying to lateral over to MBB, do a year or so there, and then recruit for PE.
If you are trying to avoid banking, you should ask yourself why you want PE. The jobs are more similar than dissimilar.
I planned a route to successfully skip banking on my way to PE and I realize now after successfully doing it that that was a mistake.
That said, candidly I think the move for you is to get a much better GMAT, shoot for HSW, and try to get to PE after crushing every modeling class your school has to offer rather than having a “fuck around” MBA experience.
If you look at HSW stats, very very few people are able to place in PE without prior experience and career services tells students that without any prior experience PE is not an option. The exceptions are primarily diversity or LMM funds, so I would not at all count on that
Agreed on having a higher quality MBA brand name, but disagree that you'll be able to land anywhere if you just go to HSW and crush modeling classes.
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