Should I give up on trying to move from tier two consulting to blue chip PE and instead shoot for banking?
I'm a year and a half into the job and have been working so hard to break into PE from consulting, but it's not working. I'm wondering if it makes sense to just call the two years a wash, reach out to fellow alumni of my undergrad, and start over in banking as an analyst next summer.
Will a reset be tolerated by headhunters who have seen me struggle, or will this be the final nail in the coffin? On one hand I can market this as "I understand growth strategy and due diligence [my area of expertise]", but on the other hand I realize the farther you get from undergrad, the harder it is to break into PE through the traditional on-cycle channel.
My main issues are (1) Headhunters have so far been relatively unwilling to send my resume over to UMM firms (where I would very much like to work for a variety of reasons) and (2) I do not know how to structure and execute transactions.
Thank you very much.
Which firm? What sector experience do you have?
PMd
Actually I can't PM, please PM me
I did something similar. I started out of undergrad in consulting after interviewing in banking and consulting. Quickly realized that I didn't want to be in consulting and that PE was my ultimate end goal. After one year of consulting I joined a BB analyst program ==> MM PE.
I found that my consulting background married with my banking background was a positive in PE recruiting, as I had the technical financial skill set, but also strategy / ops work, plus more exposure of operating / senior execs than you typically get in banking alone. I don't think I would have had nearly as easy of a transition to the buyside had I not gone into banking. Sure, I lost one year, but now that I'm several years into my PE career, it turned out to be nothing in the grand scheme of things.
Thank you. This is what I'll do. Unfortunately, two years lost to banking.
Any idea if I can still get into bschool if I do CO -> IB -> PE? Will adcoms understand that you need 2 + 2 for IB/PE and that the consulting was a trial period?
I think you're overthinking things a little here and would just recommend focusing on your next step in front of you. I totally get the desire to want to map your life out perfectly, but as I've accepted moving away from that more and more it makes life much easier and happier.
I imagine it will be very doable to transfer into a banking analyst program with some networking. Focus on that, get to a good spot and then begin preparing for the move to PE if that's still truly what you want to do.
I say this not to be harsh, but things in the industry are changing all the time. Do you want to go to b-school as a lifelong goal/dream or is it just something you anticipate you will need to do (it's not)? Assuming your ~23-24 now, by the time you applied to school if you still do some day you would be 27-28 which is right around the average age of students returning. Again, that's assuming you follow the exact path you're laying out. Just go one step at a time.
How did you make the switch?
First off, make sure you're ready to interview again. Since you're two years into your consulting gig, you're likely three years removed from your last banking interview (if you recruited for banking in college). I dusted off my IB interview prep notes from two years before, and made sure I was super tight on my technical - I also made sure I had a very clear story for wanting to switch into banking. Your story will need to be very tight, especially after two years.
Then for me, I networked my way into interviews. Went through my school, talked to buddies who were in the industry, alumni, a bunch of folks. Ultimately, a kid the year above me at school intro'd me to his MD, and said MD got me into the recruiting process.
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