What Do Exits Look Like For MBB Employees Focused On PE/VC Due Dilligence Projects?
I know it's mostly Bain that does these, but I imagine McK, BCG do too. What do exits look like for those who are often staffed on these projects at the Post MBA level look like?
bump!
Post mba exits to PE (and VC I imagine, though VC recruiting is a bit of a black box to me) investment teams from consulting are going to be incredibly rare. Exits to operations teams at funds I would expect to be more common, though diligence work is very different from operations work so you probably wouldn’t want to solely do DDs if that’s a route you want to go down. I know Mck and Bain use their DDs to sell a lot of portfolio work with the funds they do DDs for (BCG might do this too, I just know Mck and Bain do) so if you join a PE team at one of those firms you would also likely do some PE portfolio work that would open you up to PE ops exits and other traditional consulting exits.
That’s my understanding from my relatively short amount of time in consulting, if someone with more experience has a different take trust theirs over mine.
If you want my 2 cents…I can’t imagine a line of consulting work less suited for exiting post MBA than diligence work. DDs are basically high level reports on a company and industry. I see why that skill is useful on a PE investment team, but those exits are mostly only available to pre-MBA consultants. I don’t really see a use for the skills you develop from DDs outside of that, to the extent those skills are useful they could be better developed on other kinds of strategy projects. Not sure if that actually translates to weaker exits from due diligence teams relative to other teams, that’s just my opinion based on my own DD experience
I'm not sure if I agree that the DD skillset is too niche to exit with. It's not all that different from what you'd do on a "traditional" strategy project, just condensed into 2-3 weeks of intense work. I do agree that you shouldnt spend all of your 2 years as a post-mba on diligences - definitely branch out and do other project types (the great thing about MBB is that they do actually care about you want, and staffing isn't a black box like at some T2s). At the end of the day, it's up to you to market the skillset you've obtained and it's usually pretty easy to spin whatever youve worked on at MBB into the role that you want. Plenty of people exit into industries/functions they barely touched during MBB
No disagreement. I guess I would amend my original comment to say that while the DD skill set is useful for exiting, you can generally pick up those same skills (and others) from other kinds of strategy projects.
I think it’s also worth mentioning that DDs have materially worse WLB than other areas of consulting. Most people don’t find DDs inherently interesting, so that WLB trade off is only worth it if you are seeing material gains in other outcomes, such as exits. Personally, I would avoid DDs unless you are very sure it will give you a leg up in achieving your desired exit or help you in some other way. If you’re just looking for generic consulting exits, I don’t think specializing in DDs is worth it
Currently not in DD, but looking to pursue it once I graduate with my mba. I've learned Bain is #1 (no surprise) at about 40-45% of the market and then McKinsey and L.E.K. corner about 15% each, with Parthenon, BCG, Oliver Wyman, and Strategy& all being about 5-7.5%.
Exit Ops (don't quote me but my research has this)-
PE: Extremely tough even though DD consulting is intertwined with the PE industry. PE is filled with ex-ibankers who love hiring similar individuals who are master LBO modelers.
HF: Depends on the fund strategy, but some managers seek researchers with a strong commercial due diligence background.
VC: The market sizing skills learned in PE Consulting are favored for VC
ER: The DD skills learned are ideal for research roles
Corporate Strategy: generic exit op
Startup: a bit risky, but high potential payoff
Do people from MBB ever exit into VC Principal/Partner roles? -- I think analyst makes quite a bit of sense, but I am curious about exits into more senior positions.
Where'd you get those %'s from? Or did you pull them out of thin air haha
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