Private Investing at a BB vs. Traditional IB → PE
I interned at a small tech boutique investment bank freshman year, and I'm currently at a $4B+ AUM middle-market PE fund for sophomore summer.
For junior summer, I accepted a role at a bulge bracket (JPM/MS/GS) in a private investments group. The team works across private funds, co-investments, and direct investments, but it's obviously not the traditional IB route (more of an allocator role).
I'm wondering how these roles are viewed for long-term buyside exits. Could this still lead to top investing opportunities, or would I be better off recruiting for IB and following the more standard IB to PE path? Does having the MM PE experience help offset not having a traditional IB background?
I'm genuinely not sure which path has the higher ceiling, so I'd appreciate any thoughts- thank you!
Based on the most helpful WSO content, here's what you need to know:
Private Investments Group vs. Traditional IB for PE Exits:
Impact of MM PE Experience:
Long-Term Buyside Opportunities:
Key Considerations:
Ultimately, the decision depends on your long-term career aspirations. If you're unsure, consider networking with professionals in both paths to gain more clarity on what aligns best with your interests and goals.
Sources: Breakdown of Post-IB Exit Opportunities, Breakdown of Post-IB Exit Opportunities, Am I missing something about buyside exits?
Assuming this is GS - I think you’ll be fine. Just call yourself a private equity analyst on LinkedIn and frame it that way to head hunters. You should have generally the same opportunities as someone coming out of IB, assuming this is actual investing and not fundraising advisory or FoFs or secondaries.
Stay on top of on cycle recruiting and reach out to head hunters proactively in case your profile doesn’t get picked up by their algos due to not being in PE. They should be happy to speak with you.
What about other private investments like hybrid capital? Do you think similar PE exits are possible
Thanks. The group covers private funds, co-investments, and select direct investments across buyout, growth equity, and venture capital, but the role is primarily an allocator role rather than a traditional PE deal team. Wouldn’t that reduce my direct investing exit opportunities compared with IB, even with prior MM PE experience?
Investing in private funds and co-investments uses a different skillset than buyout private equity. When conducting diligence on a private fund, you spend more time benchmarking the fund’s returns and managing partners than on the company-level. While co-investments are on the company level, the GP seeking co-investment will provide you their own investment memo, model, and materials. It might be difficult to convince buyout firms of your modeling and sourcing experience from that.
That makes sense, and thank you for the advice! A few things I was wondering about, though:
Thanks a lot again
Would suggest trying to get a typical IB job at a top bank if you can do it. Not all of the bank private investing teams are bad but there’s too much variability between them and hard for headhunters to assess the experience analysts actually get at these. Megafund PE firms are risk-averse when it comes to hiring and have a pretty rigid process where they largely target specific IB teams because they know exactly what they’re going to get. If you’re not in one of these teams then unlikely to get looks regardless of your experience. Have a friend who struck out of IB and ended up at GS growth and ended up spending most of their time sourcing instead of any actual technical work then didn’t get any good looks from buyout funds (or even top growth funds). This also extends to financing teams. Have another friend in GS levfin who didn’t get any looks from megafund buyout teams (only got invited to interview with their cap markets teams). In general when it comes to exit ops at BBs, you want to take the path of least resistance, which means targeting the top M&A and coverage IB groups above everything else
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