Transforming a Deal into a Job

I'm currently working as a consultant (1-2 years out of college), however our firm has recently started to get involved in private equity. As a result, I tapped my contacts and found a great PE opportunity. My firm passed on getting involved, but I didn't want to take no for an answer so I tapped my contacts within the firm to try to line up some investors from other firms in my free time. As a result, I've had several calls with the CEO of the firm and an MD at a large PE firm. Now, it's grown bigger and I have an upcoming call with all three and a partner at one of the largest PE firms. Anyways, obviously this is dependent on the deal going through, but other than just resume stregthening, I was wondering how I could use this deal to get an in on the field.

 

Thanks for the reply! I already cleared it with my MD and the play is that they will hire our firm to do a lot of the performance improvement work.

As for the lack of details, unfortunately I have to keep it very vague as its an ongoing lbo. Pretty much all I can say it'sin the ballpark of $500mm and I'm conversing twice weekly with an MD at a top boutique and a partner at large PE firm.

 

If you are delivering a $500mm proprietary LBO opportunity to a PE firm and they close it, I think it is more than reasonable that you ask the PE firm to consider you for an associate position. The answer may be "no," but certainly it's a nice if nontraditional angle into a PE gig. If somebody brought me a $500mm deal and I closed it, and they wanted a $250k associate gig instead of like a $5m fee, I'd be pretty pumped.

 

If you do the deal just ask. Say that doing this deal made you realize that you'd like to do this rather than consulting and ask how you'd go about breaking in, realizing that they know you're asking for a job. Continue talking to the banker also and maybe put in some time in IB if you like doing deals like this. Hell, even if you don't do the deal and you still have their ears bring it up. You've got nothing to lose.

 
Best Response

Hey guys/ thanks for all the replies!

RLC1- That was essentially my plan, not only would I be saving them a lot of money, I would also be talking to the people that can make a decision and have a lot of facetime with them. Worst case I get a nice sourcing fee :).

Spyvspyder- I did the math quickly, assuming you generate a 7% return a year (don't want to be too volatile or risky as this is your lifeblood), you can pull out 5% per year on average to avoid depreciation. Use the fund to cushion any volatility and you're looking at about a $250k salary a year. Say I go into PE I would have a similar lifestyle in my 20s, with a lot of free time. Though I would lose a lot of money in my 30s and 40s. From a money/lifestyle balance it's a good call, but I'm also 23 years old. I don't want to be Russ Hanneman, some dude with money and nothing to do. I want to go into PE because it's fun, exciting, and it pays me. Even if I got the sourcing fee I would probably just take a year off to party and then go back into something. Obviously ideal would be sourcing deal+ job, but that's not always the case.

dingdong08- Thanks! Ya it doesn't hurt to ask, worst case they just say no. I have good credentials top (ivy league with 3.7 gpa) so it's not that I'm an unattractive candidate. Thanks for telling me how to phrase it, I wanted something that's not just a desperate "hire me please". As for ibanking I'm actually interested it as associate, but not as an analyst. I enjoy doing the deals and closing them as well as creating models and inputting decisions, not fixing commas. Analyst ibanking in my opinion is too much bitch work, not enough banking.

 

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