Should I become a VC analyst out of undergrad if I want an MBA?

Lucky enough to have been extended a VC analyst offer- however I'm unsure if it will limit my career later. The fund has been around for 13+ years and is quite well known in startup circles, but only has about $75AUM for its upcoming fund (all previous funds have been allocated already).

I don't doubt that this will be valuable experience, and I am truly passionate about the space/networking with investors and founders, but worry about future opportunities. There is hypothetically a path to partnership, but this would be long AF and dependent upon my performance so I'm definitely not counting on that. Ideally, I'd like to pursue an MBA after a 2-year stint and it helps that this firm is filled with HSW mbas. Most of these folks however joined the fund post MBA. So the question is, is it likely a viable path to work 2 years as a VC analyst and end up at HSW? 

3 Comments
 

If your optimization equation is about going to bschool, then doing VC out of college is likely a slight positive than a negative. Will say overall, the bar for getting into HSW with only 2 years of work experience is quite high, and coming from VC is probably one of the few roles where you get a solid shot at it. This is because HSW admissions over-rotates on filling their classes with people coming from roles that the graduating class wants to go into, and right now tons of people want to get into VC on the other side. As you say there's some potential limitations on your career post MBA. Presumably you won't want to do banking or consulting after school. You'll likely have a tough time recruiting for growth or PE or a meaningful tech role with only 2 years of VC analyst experience before school. If you end up liking your fund and want to go back after the MBA, that's a solid outcome.

 

Appreciate the thoughtful reply. I always thought that HSW would put me into a stronger position for PE or tech PM/bizdev due to network... seems like I'm misguided on this. Perhaps then it'd be better for me to do the two years as VC analyst and then jump to another role before bschool? I'm unsure however what roles I could reasonably obtain with two years of vc. sounds like you're saying consulting/tech/pe would be out of reach?

 
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