VP lateral or HBS / GSB
Would you take a VP lateral to a small but growing ($1.5-2.0B) MM fund or go to HBS / GSB. Thinking about 2028 apps and trying to decide what would be best.
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Can you provide more information about your preferences and goals? Hard to offer advice when it’s not clear what you’re optimizing for.
And are these hypothetical or in hand?
a lot of people at h/s would kill for that kind of VP seat
Agree, one of my family friends is at H/S and did UMM PE beforehand; can't get a single PE VP spot right now. The market is very difficult, and even for those in MF PE programs, a lot of people are being forced out or going to LMM PE because they can't get any VP seats for a fund with $1Bn+ fund size.
Who is throwing MS at this comment? This is very accurate
Lateral from where? Do you have both of these offers or are they hypothetical?
It's a lot different situation if you are at a MF now with HBS offer, versus at a MM and thinking about applying to HBS
Obviously the VP seat
Currently at the GSB.
Take the VP seat.
Currently at HBS and no way would I have taken that lateral over going here
Curious your rationale (no right or wrong - just wanted to hear your take)?
Can you both say more? Would be super helpful to have perspective from folks there
I'm pretty sure I'll land a job at a fund that's >1B-2B. If your only aim is to get a job at KKR/APO/ you might be disappointed, but landing something decent is possible for those that made an effort.
That aside, benefits in other areas of life have been invaluable: meeting people, self reflection, broadening worldview, making friends. HBS is a pretty special place. There's a whole economy outside PE.
You have pre MBA PE experience? At what type of place?
Not an IB analyst, many years out of school. My cohort of friends are going through HBS / GSB now (or finished in the last few years). VP seat is an easy answer. Unless very pedigreed or a woman / urm it’s very difficult to cold recruit into a VP seat post MBA. Not worth the headache. Just ask this new firm for a month off or something and live somewhere else / unplug.
The PE market is very very challenging for MBA’s right now. I would be cautious about taking that risk, unless it’s a full ride of course
If you have a very strong career background, you'll be totally fine out of the MBA. I'd personally hit that route if you value the time off and building a great network. I'd only take the VP seat if you're really excited about it and feel there are a small # of comparable seats out there to potentially land, OR if your background is not as strong and you are "outhitting" your paper background.
Generally, tons of luck in any job search, but if you're well-qualified / well-interviewed enough to land one job of X caliber, I'd bet strongly you'll land other comparable opps. Think about what excites you more and attack the process from that angle vs downside minimization, IMO. Good luck!
Was at GSB/HBS coming from a MF background (just graduated) and landed a UMM post MBA role. I think people are being a bit too overly 'doom and gloom' with post MBA recruiting.
If you're coming from a MF or other top tier shop(e.g., General Atlantic, TA) you'll get good looks. Now you probably won't get any MF shots except for those opportunistic hires that are looking for a specific sector background but the lateral market is also pretty crappy so not like you had a shot at VP MF seat that way either.
On the other hand, there were plenty of sub $2-3bn funds hiring VP roles. Its not a walk in the park but when I look at my classmates from UMM/MF backgrounds I'd say 9/10 of the folks that were trying to go back to PE got a post MBA role that was on par or better than a $1-2bn fund (objective measures, not thinking about culture nor WLB).
Perhaps its me trying to cope (but not really) but if you're looking at a 3-5 year ROI on your MBA you're looking at it wrong. You need to look at it at 10+ year timeline for it to start making sense. I realize that with AI the need for college (and def MBA) becomes less and less but for me it made a lot of sense. I came from a semi target school with not the best representation on the street and to have that GSB/HBS name/network opens a lot of doors.
So I echo what others are saying but if you've been smart enough to get a MF seat + GSB/HBS I wouldn't underestimate yourself in finding a good job after MBA.
Out of curiosity, if you further filter for people who got vp offers at funds with latest fund size of $5bn or more - assume those were very few (i.e. less than 10 people)?
Not accounting for people going back to their old firms I'd say its a bit more than 10 but around there
I found your response super insightful. I’m thinking about an MBA from MF — can you pm me to answer a couple questions? Would be much appreciated
What have you seen for dudes coming from LMM/MM funds to begin with? Is that where you’re fucked? Ie if you’re coming from a ~1B fund, could you realistically go to a solid MM/ UMM spot post MBA?
To be frank there weren't that many LMM folks at HBS/GSB to begin with. If you're coming from a $1bn fund odds are you're stuck there or going further downstream (though I'd argue a $1bn fund is squarely MM) unless you have some niche specialty that a certain firm is looking to buildout/hire opportunistically (similar to MF hiring).
But for most folks from the LMM (or a JAAMBO) won't have a shot a UMM/MF. Interview potentially but rarely actually get a seat. Btw all this is for US specific outcomes, I've seen some international success (e.g., Indian internationals going from MM to UMM/MF though all offices are based in India).
Bumping this
What’s the 10YR ROI if most of the intelligent ppl I went to UG with aren’t getting MBAs anymore? Not taking a dig at you, bc I understand that in PE sometimes your best option is going, however, more broadly only one of each of the top analysts or PE associates I worked with went to get an MBA. Most of those that went that direction are remarkably mediocre. I guess the question is if you don’t have to go, is it really worth the relationships b/c the world largely seems to recognize that it’s kind of a joke vs. 20-30 years ago when everyone was going.
Truthfully I don’t know the 10YR ROI. You can sketch out a base case like partner track, but the reality is most people self-select out or don’t make it, MBA or not. And yes, if you ask MDs or Partners with MBAs they’ll say it was worth it, but that’s survivorship bias.
I’d push back on the idea that “most who go are mediocre,” at least at HBS/GSB. Sure there are duds, but plenty of people with great backgrounds land strong roles. If MBAs were truly just mediocre, you’d expect them to get out-promoted by their peers. That’s not really the case you still see a healthy share of post-MBA talent at the VP+ level (princpals, so those that have probably graduated within the last 3-5 years) for firms that do both direct promotion / MBA hiring (see HIG).
On the market side, the last few years have been rough for mid-level PE. Promotion rates have dropped, so talented people are getting squeezed out. Just because someone didn’t get the one promotion doesn’t mean they’re mediocre it often just means the pyramid is tighter and as you mentioned MBA may just be 'the best option' to weather the storm.
Finally, on network: for those of us who didn’t come from target schools or don’t have technical coding skills, the MBA network I think, can be helfpul, especially over a long horizon. Hard to put ROI on that, but it matters. And for me personally, the two years also gave me a reset from burnout, which was valuable in its own right... or maybe I'm just telling myself that to justify the hefty near $200k tuition
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