Q&A: Bulge Bracket IB Analyst -> MM in Lev Finance -> Private Equity

My background

  • Most recently was an Associate at a PE firm investing in middle-market businesses
  • A Senior Analyst at Piper Jaffray in the Leveraged Finance group, working across all industry verticals on LBOs, acquisition financings, refinancings, and recapitalizations
  • Previously, spent 2 years at Citi in the Leveraged Finance Credit Portfolio group focused on origination and ongoing credit monitoring of outstanding loans. Was also a member of the Columbia recruiting committee for the Investment Banking Division for incoming Summer and Full-Time Analysts
  • Graduated in 2014 from Columbia University with a BA in Business Management and Hispanic Studies. Was a member of the men's nationally ranked D1 Varsity Rowing team and named to the Intercollegiate Rowing Association's All-Academic Team
  • Fluent in Spanish

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Current and prospective IB interns: feel free to ask any questions about dos and don'ts, performance, advice, securing an offer, getting something next summer, etc.

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WSO Podcast:Bulge Bracket IB Analyst -> MM in Lev Finance -> Private Equity

Member @Clion shares his struggle to land a front office investment banking position, even coming from an ivy league school. We cover his struggle with HR to transition to the leveraged finance team at the bulge bracket, why he eventually decided to lateral to a smaller bank, moving to Austin, TX from New York, NY for an exciting private equity job and why he's now able to hit pause and reassess his options.

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What would you say to a 40yr old independent govt bond trader with a 3.0 GPA from a state school 15 years ago, who wants to "restart" their career into investment banking?

No experience or knowledge in IB type finance (tho a decent amount of experience building excel spreadsheets to analyze govt interest rates...tho for different purposes than IB uses them).

Is there a way in, without going MBA (MBA is very expensive for non-guaranteed return, and low GPA and non-relevant career history would make it hard to get into a good program anyway).

just google it...you're welcome
 
Most Helpful

Thank you for doing this! As a 1st year M&A analyst in a lower-tier large bank (HSBC / SocGen / BNP / DB / Barclays), I feel that the chance to jump to a PE fund is extremely limited. My ultimate aspiration is to work at a megafund / large fund ($30+bn). I'm getting conflicting opinions on what I could do to possibly achieve this:

A: First move to higher tier BB then recruit for large PE B: First recruit to a MM / small PE and then move to a larger PE as I progress

What would be your advice on ultimately arriving at this goal?

 

Great question!

Firstly, I would say you should focus on learning as much as possible in your current role and developing your skill set as an analyst. Also, develop relationships with senior bankers that you work with as they have great relationships with private equity firms and are sometimes willing to make introductions for you.

W/r/t recruiting for megafund vs. MM PE, you should try both and talk with recruiters. There are plenty of PE Associates at megafunds that came from other places besides GS, MS, and JPM. I'm not sure you necessarily need to make a lateral move to a top-tier bank just to give yourself a chance at megafund recruiting.

Hope that helps and best of luck with your recruiting!

 

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