What's the most reasonable career path I should consider PE/VC as a student with an a-typical background
I'm an electrical engineering undergraduate going into the final year from Ireland. My professional background is in software engineering. I taught myself how to code at like 10 years old (20 now) and have been working the past year in a seed stage start up backed by a pretty large VC firm (Us-based, I work Remote)
I've a pretty significant role in the company, was originally offered a founding engineer position, but changed that to a regular full-stack role because I was still in college. Right now, I work PT during the academic year (20-30h a week) and FT in the summer (40ish hours for 4 months). Relevant to the discussion; I make around $140-150k a year currently in my job. Assuming the company doesn't go bust within the next year, I'll probably get a full-time offer for close to or above $200k a year.
I never wanted to work as a SWE, this job landed in front of me randomly, but I'm extremely greatful for it (obviously). I only learned how to code as a means to an end, my original goal when i was like 10/11 was to build the next flappy bird, and figured I needed to learn how to code to do it, so I did it.
I'm considering working in PE/VC mainly cause I'd like to be on the flip side of things, having worked in a start-up and had aspirations of being a founder myself, would be interesting to work on the buy-side/growth equity, and be the one investing in companies and evaluating their potential rather than seeking investment. Also to be fair, I like the prestige of working in a high-finance role.
I'm already aware of the downsides/negatives, but I wanted to consider what the best path could look like if I wanted to go down this route.
I'm planning on applying for a deferred MBA programme next year. So I'm asking myself, if my goal was to break into VC/PE what would the best thing for me to do now considering my position?
In an ideal world, I wouldn't have to regress–money wise, or title wise. I'm at a pretty senior role right now, but that's cause of the experience I had since I started so young, and I'm making the money to match it. If I wanted to change industries, I would like to avoid having to start from the bottom until, so I'm wondering if there's a way to kind of make that switch mid-career, or for someone in a-typical position like myself.
I'm not 100% on wanting to work in PE/VC either, but I might as well figure out what it takes and what path I'd have to consider. I'm open to doing any Masters programmes, if not the MBA, but I understand that it's pretty important to have some sort of IB/banking experience, otherwise you won't even be considered. So I was thinking in my head a logical route could be:
Continue SWE in Startup (1-3 years) -> MBA -> Banking (2 years) -> PE/VC
Or,
Continue Startup -> Exit -> MBA -> VC
So I guess my question I'm asking is, is what I have in my mind the most reasonable path, or is there any other way really to get into the industry thats more ideal I suppose. I'm not set on this. I'm just considering my options now so don't really need anyone advising me against it–I'm aware of the cons. Or if there's anyone with a similar background that can advise, I'd appreciate it.
Anyways, thanks for your time!
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