Private Equity the long way
Everyone here talks about PE after the analyst program, and that's understood given most of the people are maybe 2 or 3 years removed from underdgrad.
But what about the long way if you've missed the bus in PE? I'm 10 years out of my analyst program and have done random stuff since then. Worked abroad, started a company (unfortunately not successful), top-10 b-school, now working in corporate development.
I know I'm not going to get into PE applying through recruiters, because I'm too old for associate position, and probably not going to get an opportunity at the VP level. Getting back to my question, what about the long way? work 7 - 10 years in corp development, get 10-20 corp deals in my belt and then try to move over. Is this viable path? I ask because all I see are PE associates moving up the PE track. Can a corp dev guy with 10 years experience get a PE gig in New York City?
I'm interested in hearing this as well - I have similar background.
I'm sure it's possible in the sense that I could see this as having occurred before, but I doubt that there are that many instances and I would think that speaking in generalities here is borderline meaningless. Like I could see a senior corp dev guy moving from F500 to a PE firm focused specifically on the same sector.
That being said, if you make it to a senior position in corp dev, why would you want to move to PE? From what I understand about corp dev, the lifestyle is pretty good, the pay is somewhat lower (but still objectively pretty good), and it's going to be real hard telling your family that you're taking a new job and going to be around less when you're in your 40s.
I see what you're saying if you're a Corporate VP trying to make the switch to PE. But I think if you're a Manager/Director level in CD, you might find that you kind of stall out in the corporate world (only so many VP role available). I think from my perspective, the career path in PE maybe a little more straight forward/structured - which is more appealing to me (obviously that's just my outside perspective).
Also obviously the reward is better in PE and riskier than in CD. I definitely won't argue with you on lifestyle but I'm a little younger in my career than the OP so maybe I have a little bit different of a perspective.
Here is an option, why not find a CD role in a PE owned company. I would suggest you look for a portfolio company run by one of the smaller PE firms. Prove your value to the PE firm while working on the CD side and it makes crossing that bridge to PE a breeze.
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