Currently work at F-500 bank in the USA, but accepted to move to my SO in EU and get my MBA at a T-15 school. How much of a disadvantage will it be for me post-MBA? The school is an accelerated program, so only one year without internship opportunity. It is possible to transfer for a trimester to another school for abroad education, but I'm not sure how much that will help. My current stats:
Education: Bsc at a small liberal arts non-target USA (3.5 GPA)
GMAT: 700
Experience: Senior Financial Analyst FP&A (2 promotions) at a F-500 Bank; 2 years of experience
I would like to work PE, and the area I will be is ripe with startups. The school is really the only school in the area that has strong prestige, but the average WE is around 6-8 years vs. my 2. I will be networking and have already started to, but is there anything else I can do to really bolster myself with lower WE?
bcrew13, have you checked out these or run a search:
Fingers crossed that one of those helps you.
probably ok but tough. nontarget doesnt help, and you need sponsorship??
It places well in Europe, I've already connected with people at like Bain Capital from the school, and they say it places well in London. I do not need a sponsorship as my wife is Swedish.
Your most straightforward path to PE will be to do IB first. Large banks will have the resources to offer a sponsorship if your goal is to stay in the EU. I don't know what your visa situation will be post-grad, but going to work for a startup in a strategy/finance function could also be a strong resume building step.
I won't need a sponsorship, which will be an advantage, and I will get a little bit of startup experience as the school does a semester long advisory board with a startup in the city. I am interviewing currently for a IB summer internship at a boutique which may help if I land it.
Will be very difficult to get into PE post MBA without:
1) Pre-MBA PE experience 2) H/S/W MBA
Even with both, plenty struggle to get into PE.
I don't know much about the Europe market for PE, but I've heard that it's even tougher than the US market.
With that being said, if you get a chance to live abroad with your SO and get an education that could be a lot of fun. Just don't expect it to place you into a PE role. The best you could hope for is a Post-MBA IB Associate job and hope to do that for a few years before trying to find a non traditional path into PE.
Very fair, I understand everyone typically wants to work PE, and I won't put all my eggs in one basket, if I can land an IB internship prior to my MBA it may give me a bump in the possibility. Do you believe IB>Strategy at a startup for breaking into PE?
VC's value startup experience. The business involves a lot of gut level intuition around whether a business will succeed. PE typically doesn't really value startup experience. They look for direct deals experience and hard financial modeling skills (you really need both for an entry level role). PE involves a lot of cash flow modeling to understand that the ROI on a business makes sense. They also care (typically a lot) about your pedigree - where you went to school, where you placed in your class, and how prestigious the company and role is that you're coming from. Basically they need to check every box that you have demonstrated that you're a top performer (not just that you have the potential). Do you have a particular fund you're talking to that typically hires at startups and where you might be a target candidate? I'm scratching my head a little bit at your 5 year plan.
Are pre-MBA IB internships a thing? I don't think so at the major banks (which is what PE recruits from) but I'd check. Maybe the EU is different than the U.S.. Most people targeting PE intern THROUGH school, not during the summer, so you really already need to be on the ball with PE at that point.
2 years of experience is also very light for an MBA, particularly in Europe. Even if you get in, it can hurt for recruiting.
A better question is why do you want to work in PE? Do you just hear that it pays a lot? It doesn't sound like you've done your homework on your post-MBA options and what you need to do to get there.
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