Starting career in MM PE fund or in consulting?
Hey everyone,
in few months I will graduate and I'm starting to have some doubts about the beginning of my future career. At the moment I have an informal offer from Alvarez & Marsal (Continental Europe) and I'm staring the interview process with Alix Partners (UK). At the same time I'm starting to look for PE intern positions and indeed yesterday I did my first interview with a permanent fund managed and sponsored by Neuberger Berman and in few days I will have my first interview with Triton Partners in London. My question is: does it make sense to start immediately in an MM PE fund or is it better to follow the classic path (IB/consulting and then transition to PE)?
Because my idea initially was, like many others out there, to start working in consulting and then pivoting, hopefully, in a MF PE fund. But looking online it seems that there are quite many options to start immediately in PE, the only "problem" is that these positions are in smaller funds with less prestige. Indeed, I'm worried that these funds, being sometimes quite small and not having a proper organizational structure, would slow me down my career progress (both in terms of exposure and pay), and indeed it would may be better to work in consulting for few years and starting in PE as a more experienced figure.
Thank you to to whoever may have an opinion about that :)
Comments (12)
Would suggest you go for Consulting if you want optionality.
But why not banking if MF is the goal?
The honest truth is that I value a lot my WLB and I'm not ready to work on average 16/18 hours per day... So having experienced consulting I found it quite more sustainable and interesting than IB.
You'll hate MF PE if that's the case.
Not sure about NB but be aware that Triton does not convert internships in London if that's what you're interviewing for so you might not have a choice
Can confirm. Currently at Triton (ignore my title). So far we have only offered analyst positions in Frankfurt. There is a VERY strong preference for these analysts to be prior female interns. The conversion rate is also extremely low and I think that only 3-4 people have converted so far. No structured analyst program exists so expect learning curve to be bumpy. People will not be very keen on teaching you basic stuff in Excel and PPT as they are used to working with people who have done their time in banking.
WLB at A&M or Alix won't be particularly good either, especially if it's working for PE clients. Those consulting teams get worked hard.
What are the hours like for A&M, 60-79 during PE DDs? I thought A&M mainly focused on post-acquisition stuff though?
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