Need Career advice - Masters, M&A or PE?
I am 23 years old, will receive my finance & accounting bsc from a Hungarian university. I am fortunate enough to have worked at a Hungarian boutique IB as an M&A intern for a year, which gave me a leg up to get into an Austrian boutique tech IB, where I am again an intern since a month ago (with a good chance of converting into junior). However, this is not what I want to do in the long term. Ultimately my goal is to get into a PE firm or a hedge fund for a while and after that, somewhen in the future launch my own shop.
Right now fortunately I have many different paths available to me, but it also makes my decision harder, which is why I would like to ask for your advice. I really don't want to fuck this up so I'm hoping some of you who have similar ambitions/experiences or have "figured it out" (I know barely anyone does but still) would chip in with some advice, but I would be happy to read anyone's opinion.
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I could stay at my current place at the tech M&A boutique IB and after a few years try to make a jump to a PE.
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Theres a PE guy back in Hungary who I have befriended a while ago. He called me up today and told me that there is a ~200 M EUR AUM PE firm looking for a hire and he could recommend me. While it sounds good at first, salaries in Hungary aren't very high so I would probably earn more at my current place. Also, I'm not sure if exiting to PE firms abroad would be possible from a firm like this one or if I would be in a better position after having spent a couple of years at my current place (any thoughts on this?). Finally, I'm also curious where I would learn more.
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I have been accepted to a one year long Financial Economics MSc at Erasmus University with a scholarship covering the 2,5k EUR tuition costs. I would probably have a better chance at a BB IB placement and from there I could try my luck at a PE firm in the west
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I have been accepted to a two year long Quantitative Finance MSc at WU aswell (no scholarships, but tuition is free). Very strong focus on R, seems to be a well-rounded program with no bullshit courses (this much maths could be a bit of an overkill for my goals though). Almost no focus on corporate finance/valuation techniques (comparable, DCF) and as Ive heard placements at IB's, AMs, PEs, HFs are basically non-existent.
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Copenhagen Business School Finance and Investments MSc - tuition-free, CEMS Master in Management double degree opportunity + exchange semesters at great schools (LSE, Bocconi, St. Gallen)
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Still waiting for a reply from Bocconi Finance MSc
Any thoughts would be appreciated. Thanks!
I'm also from that part of Europe. There's a lot of options you put forward. However, if you not set on returning to Hungary anytime soon (where the PE option might be a good idea), my suggestion would be to do the following:
Intern at the Austrian boutique (I assume this is a fairly small firm without a lot of ex-employees working for big PE firms). Then go to the best masters you can get into. Not sure what the latest rankings are, but when I was a student, the order would've been Bocconi>RSM>CBS>WU. For all our American readers, CBS is Copenhagen, not Columbia and WU is Wirtschaftsuniversitat, not Washington. :)
The 2.5k tuition scholarship at RSM is nice, but not a lot considering living costs probably be around 8-10k for the year.
It would be good to also secure a return offer from the boutique, but ask them if you can defer accepting it until you figure out if you want to stay in Western Europe (or another excuse you can come up with). Keep in touch with your PE contact throughout the year.
Thanks! The M&A firm is fairly large (in Austrian terms at least) and growing fast, expanding in the US aswell. I was also wondering whether I should do a Masters at all, as I don't think it would add much value in knowledge and I could spend that 2 years gaining experience in M&A. How important do you the a Masters is? Do you think if I don't get one, it could hinder my career later on if my goal is PE?
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