Securing a secondment

At present, I'm a 1st Year Analyst at a UK mid-market Private Equity fund. I spend all of my day modelling in Excel - either for existing portfolio companies or for potential new buy-outs.

However, what I really want to do is pick up some operational experience - i.e. operating at the coal face rather than sitting in my Ivory Tower. I was speaking to some LBS alumni and they think that this would also look fantastic on my MBA applications in the future.

My dilemmna is that I was brought into the firm to fullfill a particular role - valuation, analysis etc., so it is going to be difficult for me to a) convince my Bosses of the value add to the firm of a secondment given that new deals that need analysis could come in in the meantime; and b) my actual value add to the portfolio company - where would I fit in, how could I be of help etc.?

I really want to step out of my comfort zone, away from Excel and into the real world. What's the best way to go about this?

4 Comments
 

Why don't you just do a Financial Leadership/Development type program where you'll rotate around different businesses/functions at a company? I work for a F50 company and the only seconded employees are ones that are asked to help out in another location/business unit of our company - not an outside company - and not too many are in a finance function. Not sure what it's like elsewhere but I'd imagine if you want to try various roles for short periods of time, an FLP is a good option.

 
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