Switching industries in PE post 2+2
Is there any risk in doing your 2 years as an associate in a place that focuses only on an industry you'll likely not want to stay in long term (e.g. Industrials) and then pivoting to another similar size PE firm that only does (e.g. consumer) post your 2+2 associate role?
I understand that getting an MBA and then switching industries is common, but what if you chose not to get an MBA?
FWIW I already have experience in consumer IBD
Easier to move up then down. So if you want to do industrials, better to go to KKR/Blackstone to get to TSG than going to MM industrial fund
What about moving to a similar fund size since the size of the transactions would be most comparable?
do you mean to say it's easier to go down than up? (ie reversed the order)
It's definitely an uphill battle and you'd get questions as to why you didn't do consumer to begin with out of consumer IB.
Similar size depends - MF to MF is probably unlikely, MM to MM could be doable. Much more likely to go downstream as mentioned above.
Unless you like lucked out with a MF industrials offer and have no MM consumer offers or some other situation where you really can't turn the first offer down, I would not recommend doing this. It's easier to start at a smaller consumer fund and work your way up than to change industries at a stage where your competitors will all have significant deal experience in that industry.
interesting, i've heard the opposite - ie go to the best "brand name" you can get out of IBD for branding, and that it'll be easier to lateral downstream. E.g. even if you don't like healthcare, it might be better to do healthcare at KKR (just an example) rather than go to an MM/UMM in an industry that you want to be in long-term. Under the premise that you'll always get looks from L Catterton (just an example), coming from KKR healthcare despite not having any consumer experience
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