Harvard Business School published an article recently that said they want candidates who are seeking a 'generalist' skill set - people who are capable of success and leadership in a variety of environments - as opposed to those looking to excel in a very specific niche. A lot of kids go into finance banking & consulting after graduating because of the 'exit options' and the generalist skill set that they believe these industries will give them.
This got me thinking - of the major sub-industries of finance (IB/M&A, Private Equity, Venture Capital, Hedge Funds, Consulting, Real Estate, Trading, Corporate Development, Research, etc), which one in general teaches the best 'generalist' skill set and creates the most well rounded future leaders?
Side notes: -answers may vary when comparing junior vs senior level. -i know consulting isn't exactly pure 'finance', but threw it in there because it has a sub forum on this site and many bankers/investors have done consulting -this is not a question about which field will get you into HBS.
First of all...would not call consulting a sub-sector of finance. I'm also not sure if generalist vs. specialist is even the right dichotomy to frame what teaches the best "executive" skill-set.
For example, I think from the list above a case can be made for either IB, management consulting, or potentially a PE role that has more exposure to operations, but each for different reasons.
In consulting, you will do more varied assignments, and you will get more exposure depending on the project of getting deep in the weeds of the operations of a company. In IB, you will develop a more specific finance skill set and will have far less exposure to the operations of the companies you're working with, but you'll have a better understanding for the "big picture" and overall strategy.
Private equity "can" provide good exposure to both finance / high level strategy and some operational issues in your portfolio companies, but the types of projects and companies you're working with is more limited.
Those are the obvious answers that spring to mind, but I'm sure Corporate Development can be excellent training as well (though you'll develop more specialized industry expertise in a particular slice of the business landscape), and Research develops good high-level strategy skills as well.
Something I left out earlier, but I think is likely equally if not more important than the technical / domain specific skills these roles give you, are the general professional skills such as being able to effectively work in a team, being able to grind, being diligent in producing work with few errors, knowing what you don't know and where / how to get the missing information, etc.
LMM PE because you're exposed to every part of the deal and then work with management very closely IMO.
I'm an entrepreneur which is literally as generalist as it gets and am routinely blown away by how varied the depth of skill set some of the PE guys I get to deal with on a regular basis have.
do you think this is the case at both the analyst/associate and md/partner level?
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