Google to PE/VC - Advice?
Hi All - Thanks for any input in advance, also hope I landed this in the right forum. I'll do my best to keep this short.
I'm currently 27 y/o working as a Sr. Project Manager for a boutique Azure-focused consulting firm (I was employee 26, now at 350+), and I just accepted a Program Manager role with Google in their GCP Professional Services organization. I have a masters from Northwestern in Information Systems, and an undergrad in Business Admin. I started out in software sales and have taken some turns from there.
PE/VC has always been interesting to me so I am considering an MBA in the next 2-3 years after I get some experience within Google/a chance to make some connections, and was considering trying to make a jump to CapitalG or Google Ventures (or an outside shop).
Obviously there's subjectivity to this, but how feasible of a jump would this be? What should I be looking to study/become proficient in ahead of time? What kind of roles are typically available in a VC/PE firm? Any misc. advice is appreciated too.
Hey btschmult, I'm the WSO Monkey Bot and I'm here since nobody responded to your topic! Bummer...could just be unlucky but one of these topics will help shed some light:
More suggestions...
I hope those threads give you a bit more insight.
The path of MBA > IB > PE makes sense if you are more interested in buyout type roles.
If you are interested in venture capital then that path isn't necessary as far as I understand. Having entrepreneurial experience that you can leverage into a VC role is probably more useful and potentially more interesting if you are that way inclined.
Thanks for the reply Franco. I was looking for something on the relationship management side of things (if that even exists at PE/VC firms). I have access to the 9/11 GI bill (i'm former mil) which I had planned on using for an MBA so I was likely going to do an MBA at some point regardless of which route I took. The role I accepted with Google will be dealing a lot in relationship management and strategy with 3-4 of their enterprise clients but with a tech focus obviously. I enjoy this kind of work and figure it can transfer conceptually, I just wasn't sure if a similar role existed and if so, what would I need to be proficient in to be considered for it.
Please look into UChicago. Pretty sure they fully pay for veterans' MBA if you can get in. A few other schools like this too
Had actually considered their part time program while at Google as I live in Chicago anyhow, and the part time is slightly less competitive than the full time gig. I took the GMAT and scored 67.. Figure it'd take me ~2 years to complete, and during that time I could be building relationships and making the connections to jump over to CapitalG or Google Ventures. Is there a particular program or emphasis within Booth I should be looking at?
670 GMAT*
Honestly, with your current profile, chances are slim to none. Just being honest, 670 GMAT is very borderline if not weak for any M7 MBA. If you had amazing WE, that could maybe make up for it, but your work experience is average, nothing special. Google is a good brand, but program manager isn't that sexy of a role and definitely won't turn heads for VC. PT program is U Chicago is a good program, but it won't help you switch into VC as the main point of the program is to get the education while staying at your current role. At a PT student, you don't have as much access to recruiting as the FT students and you don't have the time to do stuff like in-semester internships to try and gain relevant work experience to make the jump. CapitalG and Google Ventures are extremely competitive to get into, they'd maybe make an exception if you were a star PM at Google or something like that, but very unlikely for a Program Manager.
If you wanted me to chart you a path to VC, I'd say you should push aggressively to try and become a Product Manager at Google, do that for a couple of years and then either try and jump to VC immediately, or buff up your MBA application and go back for a FT MBA at an M7 and leverage that to try make the jump into VC. Even with that, VC is tough to get into and even tougher if you don't have some sort of investing or buyside background going into business school. The challenge with VC is that a lot of folks have interesting backgrounds for VC. The bar to enter is lower than in PE where a more technical skillset is needed. That means that all types of VCs are inundated with applications from folks who have a variety of interesting backgrounds. Academics, sales, marketing, engineering, product, etc. You need to find a way to stand out and it's tough as 1 of the thousands of program managers they probably have at Google.
FWIW - I took the GMAT on a whim as a gauge of where I was at, I could likely push closer to 700 if I studied for it. This is the advice I was looking for to be honest so thank you for the input. Out of curiosity, what makes Product Manager more translatable?
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