Lateral after 3+ years in Growth Equity / VC
Hi everyone,
Since there are not many posts about life after getting the PE/VC job and working there for a few years, I've decided to start this discussion. I am currently a Senior Associate at one of the healthcare growth equity / VC funds in New York. I have been working at the fund for 3+ years. Fortunately I am not required to get an MBA, in order to get promoted to Senior Associate or VP. For those of you who are currently Senior Associates / VPs in a fund, what would you consider are the most important things for a lateral move?
Also how would you go about finding the lateral opportunities? I do get emails from headhunters but it seems to me that the buyside lateral market is not as structured and robust as the market where we first recruited for the buyside job or the banking lateral market.
Any help / advice would be much appreciated.
Associate 3 in PE - Growth, way too quiet in here. What about these resources:
More suggestions...
Hope that helps.
Bump - very similar situation and curious as well to hear from folks who have successfully been through this.
Local market context would be pretty important here - which region / country are you in?
Thanks for your comment. New York. Will edit the original post.
Preface I’m an undergrad still so what I’m sharing is totally what I’ve learned from conversations with people in the industry/ mentors. From what I’ve seen a lot of their experiences were more serendipitous- whether it came from relationships with people at other firms who reached out when positions opened, or targeting specific firms and developing a strong relationship and keeping in contact until a position for their seniority level opened up.
Bump
I guess there are not many mid-level PE professionals here![]()
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tldr: you are your deal experience
Including: industry specialization, number of deals closed (particularly for buy-n-build firms), "style" (value investing), and sourcing ability (this is mainly for "start-up" funds and more common if you're interviewing for VP roles). This is coming from the perspective of someone at a specialized firm, however. Makes sense that my colleagues receive the best offers from equally if not more specialized funds.
bump. Any insights?
Well why do you want to move? Is it money? Is it new industry? Is it cultural?
EIther way, if it were me, I would network the way one would if they didn't have a GE job. That could mean coffee chats with friends/peers > sharing theses > sharing interesting deals you've worked on > sharing interesting contrarian opinions you could have > asking if they ever have openings for laterals
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