I don't want to write out my whole life story so I'm just gonna summarize a bit. Graduated in 2010 from generic public uni, engineering and econ majors, 3.0 GPA. Worked a generic job at a 401k recordkeeper and another at an engineering software distributor before finally landing a position as an engineer at a small 20-person industrial equipment manufacturer (~$10M rev). Been working here for two years and while I'm getting more responsibility there isn't really any way for me to move up in position.
I'm interested in transitioning to private equity, and was planning on applying to b-school next fall, matriculating 2015. 750GMAT, board of directors of an org with about $750k assets, working on starting my own non-profit as well.
I was offered the opportunity to intern at a local boutique private equity firm January-May/June. This is awesome because I know how difficult it is to get a foot in the PE door. The pay is shit, though (obviously) so I'd be taking a significant pay cut. I also have no idea what I would do after the internship; if I got a job in the field that'd be great, but I don't know how easy that would be to do given I only have 6 mos experience. I also think it would look weird on my resume if I did this internship then went back to engineering or something.
So I don't know what to do now. This sounds like an incredible opportunity because these guys are really well connected in my region, but at the same time I feel like I'm jumping off a cliff and just hoping I can find something after. I'm extremely nervous about not being able to find anything after the internship is over but don't want to have this opportunity pass me by.
What would you guys recommend?
also interested.
by the way, mind sharing what preparation you did and how you presented your case to the local boutique PE firm to get the internship?
I got to know one of the partners through a case competition in which I participated. I actually got to know pretty much everyone in the business in town through it, as this is a pretty small community here. I just explained my situation to him, asked for advice, etc. I also started off by asking him about his background, how he got into the industry, what he likes/dislikes, etc. He started throwing ideas out about what I could try to do. One of them was possibly interning with them. Later I asked him about it, we talked and he thought it'd work out so here I am.
So just networking. FWIW I was networking hard like this for about a year before this came through, and it took him 8 months to finally offer it to me. During that period I just stayed in touch sending him emails every two months or so about what I was up to, asked how things were going, etc. So persistence pays off.
Do it you're presumably 24, 25, go ahead, this is the time to take risks, if you want to make the jump do it, the results may not be great, but it is a lot easier to do this now then in 10 years when you are married with a house and children.
What kind of opps would I have afterwards and how far would this internship go in helping me get a job in the field? Someone told me I could probably use it to work my way into one of their senior/mezz debt financers or something and do that until b-school.
I actually think this is a really bad idea. You should take the private equity internship after you've been accepted to business school. Just work there for a few months in the spring/summer.
If you quit your job to go work at this shitty fund, your application is going to be all sorts of confusing and fucked up. The work progression doesn't make any sense, and for gods' sake, you've gone from being a full-time employee with (presumably) some interesting responsibilities to an intern with terrible pay. To a business school, this is a step back. Plus, you really don't want to be lumped into the private equity applicant pile. It's a much more competitive group of applicants and you won't stack up well at all. Those guys are PE associates, not interns, and they're at much better funds. You'll look like a wannabe Gordon Gekko, which isn't attractive to AdComs. If they're getting Gordon Gekko, they want the real deal.
Thanks for this, you're the first person that's said this and I think it's definitely valid. I don't know if I can get this opportunity moved to the following year, after applying to school; the two guys basically did this for me as a favor, as they have never had a spring or fall intern before. So it would be easy for them to do probably logistically, but at the same time I don't want to come off as ungrateful, as I've been asking them about this for some time and don't want to sound rude by declining when they finally offer it to me, so I'm not sure how to approach this.
I'm considering talking to them about my reservations (exit opps, it confusing my bschool story, financials) and seeing what they have to say. Then from there seeing if I can convince them to offer it to me the following year.
I'm in the process of hiring an admissions consultant and so once I get that going in the next couple weeks I'll consult with him on this issue as well.
They haven't actually offered it to me yet, just said they'd be fine with it and would make an offer once a deal they're working on moves forward which they expect will happen very soon.
So I know it'd be good for work experience, but probably not the greatest for b-school apps, but at the same time don't know if I'll get this opportunity again and I know how good it is to enter b-school already with some experience under my belt.
Also FWIW if by "shitty fund" you meant that it's just incredibly small then there's no arguing that, but these guys are pretty well connected in the region, and also they told me their last intern actually networked his way into a position at Blackstone.
Imo, your biggest worry for bschool apps would likely be letters of rec. Can you leave on good terms with your current engineering job with at least two recs and two years of experience? Does this firm usually send people to grad school and have knowledge writing or reading letters? Firms like the BBs or consultancies have seniors who do this every year, so they have stock paragraphs to dump into letters, even if the person has 1 or 2 years of work experience.
I would think that working at a new firm for several months won't garner the same recommendation letters as an employer of some years.
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