Thoughts on recruiting for FT PE from Summer Analyst

Hello everyone, just wanted to get thoughts from the community on recruiting for PE full time from an IB SA role. Traditionally, I saw 2 options, doing on-cycle or off-cycle when you start working full-time and then switch to PE after you clock in ~2 years or whenever you get hired. Recently, came across some people who successfully recruited for PE out of the summer analyst role instead of taking the FT IB analyst offer. Context on me, i’ll be doing M&A this summer and am interested in eventually recruiting for PE. Wanted to get unbiased opinions on whether recruiting for PE so soon and not clocking in the 2 years in IB would be detrimental to my learning, especially since recruiting for PE can always come.

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General advice I was given was to just take the FT analyst role and then do on or off cycle. There were various reasons based on my situation but ill give you a general break down:

1. The training you get during the 2 years at a bank would be much better than the first 2 years at an average PE firm (unless its a PE firm with a standardized analyst program or a top MF). And if you're going to be starting as an associate vs. promoted if you were an analyst at the PE firm, your skill set would be much better.
2. The pay would generally be less - and in my case most of the time it would be (of course still depending on the bank your at and the firm you would recruit too).
3. You put your return offer at stake. Its generally not a good look to be recruiting behind peoples backs, also takes away from the effort you're putting into the internship.
4. If you do banking first you will always have optionality so the opportunity cost of giving that up prematurely could be high.

Of course the benefits of doing PE right away are there and if it's something you really want to do then do it.

 
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