Elite boutique to PE/HF/Credit fund
Hi all,
New to the boards, would appreciate your help.
I'm a top ranked 3rd year analyst in Restructuring/LevFin at an elite boutique in London (think Rothschild, Lazard, Greenhill, Houlihan Lokey etc.) and looking to move over to the buyside. I've had a tonne of deal exposure in the last couple of years think I'd be particularly suited to a credit fund role given my debt experience, but also interested in PE/HFs. I'm finding it extremely difficult to get interviews at the top tier houses - in fact the feedback a number of headhunters has been that many are almost exclusively hiring from GS/JPM.
The question is: has anyone else had the same issue, moving from the advisory side to buyside, and how did you position yourself for a move? Moving over to e.g. GS for a year would potentially be an option, but seems like a pretty long route round.
Appreciate your thoughts.
LBO
Sorry to hear. Head-hunters are typically brand-focused and narrow-thinkers. Anyway you can network into a few of the processes?
I would note that the banks you listed above aren't created equal in London RXing. Since, you note "/ Lev Fin" i assume you're at Roths, which while it's a great place, hasn't pedigree in buyside ops, and RXing is viewed as running a great process, but not being as innovative as others. Forget HHs, you'll have spoken to people on the buyside through your day-to-day, grab a coffee with few guys.
Lazard, Houlihan and to a lesser extend Greenhill all have people at top names in London so while I would agree to give a slight edge to GS/MS (simply because you have worked on all kinds of transactions vs. pure M&A) I dont see why your headhunter would not be able to give you interviews at top places. If you are indeed not at Rothschild keep reaching out to more of them and use your network, there should be no reason you wouldnt be able to. I agree with the notion above however that from Rotschild this seems to be much more difficult and I have not come across anybody at the large places from there.
Actually, you should probably name and shame the HH here. He/ she is obviously useless and lazy (no surprises there). The idea has been discussed before of having reviews on HHs, i think it would be valuable to refresh on that.
Interesting. Of the EB's in London, is it fair to say that Lazard has the best placement? I seem to come across their alumni more and more these days.
I would agree to that notion, Lazard has placed quite good given its small size in Europe, including some bigger hedge funds, megafunds and mid market PE. By far the best placement into hedge funds I have seen in London is Blackstones undergrad programme (primarily their PE and Real Estate PE) though. Roths for some bizarre reason has done not nearly as good as the likes of Greenhill or even Moelis over here even though they have a great restructuring practice and strong history/network. Again I would try to contact as many headhunters as possible and sell yourself good and you should be able to get something, maybe not the top top names right away but with a bit of networking, practice and refined approach some doors should open I would argue.
Agreed one hundred percent.
Interesting topic, keep us updated OP.
PMed
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