Hi everyone, I'll keep this brief.
I was fortunate to land a PE role right out of undergrad after doing a summer at a BB IB, though it's not in buyout (doing minority investments). I know I'd prefer to move into buyout, but I'm unsure if recruiters or PE firms will consider me without a formal FT IB background.
Has anyone been in a similar situation?
Thanks for any advice.
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bump
If you were in BB IB, you would've been able to land buyout when recruiting. But you chose something that was not buyout, but now want to move into buyout? Confused
OP tried to get prestige 2 years early but ended up being too late
That's not far from the truth. It was also partly because I'd already completed an IB summer and felt I had learned enough - especially after the Director told me in week three that I'd get a return offer and that I didn't need to re-recruit. So, I wasn't just being delusional as to my ability to skip those two years and instead joining a PE shop with a strong analyst program.
I initially thought I would enjoy working on minority investments, but after being full-time for about three months, I’ve realized it’s not the right fit for me. I believe buyout would suit me better.
Seems your full time experience is exclusively doing minority investments. This isn’t going to translate into buyouts as well as investment banking experience would. As a result, you’re essentially behind the hundreds of kids looking for PE Associate jobs when they finish their banking years. You’re definitely at a disadvantage and this will likely be reflected in how recruiters present you. Focusing strictly on career optimization, I’d say you’d be well served to try to do a couple of years in banking rather than recruiting direct for buyouts now unless you’re willing to consider smaller, regional players.
Do I get any benefit from having landed a more challenging role in private equity straight out of undergrad?
My technical skills are impeccable, so I’m not concerned about that aspect recruitment wise.
Depends on the role exactly. Are you working for a reputable firm, getting good investment experience (meaning learning how to due diligence), etc.? People will judge you on the reputation if your fund in the same way bankers are judged on the reputation of their bank.
The problem you face is that a huge part of the junior role (outside of modeling) is process management, so you’ll need to convince a future employer that the skills you’ve developed are relevant to the buyout role. The fact that the job is ‘harder to get’ won’t really be relevant.
Bumping for some extra reach.
Last bump and I'll call it a /thread.
Appreciate everyone for the advice.
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