Hi everyone! I’ve really enjoyed the community here at WSO and the fantastic insights and advice people have shared over the years, so thought I’d give back and share my non-traditional experience.
My Background:
Target school, liberal arts major. Interned at a BB IBD my junior summer, and went directly to a well-respected MM PE firm post graduation.
Ask Me Anything:
Happy to answer any questions about what the day-to-day role is like, recruiting (at both my level and more senior levels), why I made this decision, etc.
WSO Mentors
Do you want a 1 on 1 mentoring session with me? Here's my mentor profile - click here.
WSO Podcast: Member @JDS07"
For the podcast I share my path to joining a top private equity fund as an analyst right out of undergrad. I covered a wide range of topics including: 1) What I learned during my bulge bracket investment banking internship 2) Why I wanted to skip investment banking 3) What I am seeing in the deal landscape, how my firm does diligence and how involved I am 4) Detailed advice on how to prepare for super competitive private equity interviews with limited deal experience 5) What I plan on doing next...
Your first question might prompt a good debate of why IB vs. PE, so I'll just provide my own thoughts: 1) Having been on the IB side briefly and now being on the other side, my firm typically views bankers as people who are really good marketers and know how to drive a competitive process (if they're good bankers). I knew that IB was going to be a transition career into PE, so my if I didn't get into a solid PE firm for FT, then I would have gone back to IB and did my two years and recruited then. To be honest, the work I do in PE assessing deals is far more complex and "impactful" than what I did in IB (spent many more hours turning purely cosmetic comments on decks....)
There are pros and cons to going into PE out of undergrad (M&I has a good article on this as well), and I'm happy to discuss that if you're interested. Overall the nature of the PE firm is really important.
2) My firm had a formal recruiting process for its core target schools (where most of the mid-level to senior people graduated from or have connections with). My school wasn't one of them, and I was the only one in many years to have got in through just cold emailing. Literally just emailed someone from the firm's website and managed to get a superday after a phone conversation. You might be surprised at the response rate you get from cold emailing if it's right during recruiting season.
Would love to hear more about your cold emailing tactics. What roles did you target, how did you approach it, etc... you can PM me as well if you don't want it posted, would highly appreciate it.
I really didn't do much cold emailing. Just a very simple email with 2-3 sentences that goes to something like "I would love to get the chance to learn more about the firm" without mentioning anything about potential chance to be interviewed. People get it.
Was it luck?
To getting the offer? There is always an element of luck in your interviews. I connected well with the firm and believe a few people were instrumental in pushing me forward.
God I respect the hell out of that response; too many people go to extremes and seem to think someone only got the offer because of daddy/minority status or they were some interviewing demigod. In reality, few things are as straightforward as what you read on a WSO forum