Hi,
I've just joined the forum and wanted to say hello. I received an engineering degree in undergrad and have worked in a number of startups in marketing and operations. I've recently moved from Silicon Valley to the midwest and I am planning to attend an MBA and make a transition into PE. From what I've read this is going to be a very difficult transition, I would love any feedback or pointers from anyone that has made a similar move. Thanks in advance!
- Ben
Someone just posted a thread on list, look at the first 10 post on the PE forum and you should see it.
Thanks mrharveyspecter, I read "Path to post-MBA PE without Pre-MBA PE Work Experience." and should have mentioned that and been more specific in my question.
I have experience growing product based startups but no finance experience. How much of a hinderance will this be and can I expect to make up this shortfall in experience during a 2 year MBA? I plan to learn everything I can about finance in the MBA and before (I am going through Wall Street Prep's financial analyst course now). I also plan to intern during my MBA to gain real world experience.
Would love feedback and a gut-check on how realistic this is as well as anyone else's experience going through the same transition.
It's a pretty big hindrance. PE is built up in people's minds to be all sorts of different things, and while partners do wear a lot of hats, the nuts and bolts of PE work is financial evaluation of investment opportunities and transactions. It's a pretty long road to convince someone that you are Accretive to the team if you don't have a background in finance.
I don't think you're going to get an answer to your question that you like. Without knowing you or the unique things you bring to the table, all anyone can tell you is the likelihood of success given your general background, and that likelihood is very, very low.
There are a lot of people on this website who have asked a similar question, and the answer is pretty much the same. I think if you read around for a while you'll get a more complete picture of what goes into the recruiting process.
@dmw86" I really appreciate your response and I see what you're saying.
I guess when I say I have no financial experience that is not entirely true. I did not get an accounting degree but I have studied accounting, I did not get a financial degree but I have built many financial models and made strategic decisions based on these models and forecasts.
My real question is how applicable is my experience in operations and marketing at startups to PE. I expect to become extremely accomplished as an excel jockey (something I am already very good at, but this will be with different and highly specific models) and I expect my experience inside of startups will give me an edge when looking at management's decisions.
From our discussion I think the best way to get to the bottom of this is to find someone that I can get on the phone with and ask these questions specifically.
I think that's the right next step. It's hard to beat the real feedback of someone talking about your specific skill set, instead of a more general one.
If you have product experience then going to a VC should be a relatively easy path for you. PE will be much tougher for the reasons I outline in my other post. PE is very deal and process oriented and those are things that can only be learned on the job. To me your options would be to try and angle for an operating role at a PE firm or start with VC, work your way into growth equity/late stage VC. If you want to go a step further, then try and leverage that experience into more traditional LBO PE.
So you have zero finance experience and zero transactional experience. You have an incredibly hard path ahead of you, as you've heard / read. In fact, nearly impossible. I'd focus on getting into banking post-MBA, and even from there, you'll have an incredibly difficult path. But at least it won't be nearly impossible.
I've seen people make the transition and my piece of advice is to work on networking in addition to the points previously touched upon above. Its not always about what you know, but who you know (as cliche as that sounds, its true).
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