Undergrad Junior summer... Try for PE or banking? (If end goal is a career at a top tier PE firm)
Hey all,
for someone who aspires for a career at a top PE shop, would you recommend striving for a PE internship junior summer or go the traditional banking route, 2 years, then move to PE? What path is generally safer and better if you want to be at a top PE shop for the long term? Thanks
I went for a PE offer junior year at a MMPE over banking recruiting (from target and I was top 1-10% of the ~100-200 people who recruit banking from the technicals side but it’s not to be cocky, I just actually like Finance eg. reading Moyer a few times for no reason no one does that in UG unless they actually like Finance). I want to say it’s never going to compare to a golden path (IB-> PE-> HF) but very few people can make that path anyway. I’m joining a good firm that gives carry, but the pay is never going to beat top EB / PE bass+bonus at the Junior levels, because I know some people “made like 175\300-400 from analyst/ associate at some of these banks. So I’m always going to have some FOMO about that, but I don’t have to worry about PE recruiting down the line, don’t have to think too much about career path because I’ve already chosen. There’s also less risk going to banking first because find performance doesn’t play as big a role in pay as being at a PE fund especially MM (or at least mine specifically) which may be a poor decision if the market goes bad (but at the same time investing in companies during the recession made companies like mine insane returns). I’m also missing out of every social aspect there can be working within a bank in terms of being the same as everyone else and having a certain network of the most hardworking people in society (not necessarily the smartest but definitely driven). But let’s be honest, the paths are great even if you take the worst offer possible, it’s all splitting hairs- you can always go back for MBA and jump ship which is why I chose my route. To be clear people think I’m in a better position now that I’m goin FT PE for some reason (everyone has FOMO I guess or think other people’s situations are better). Anyway, my point is that you lose all optionalitt and remove yourself the possibility of going to MFPE or something similar, and you’re going to decent/pretty good shops when otherwise you could recruit for greatest MM shops ever, etc. If you’re not insecure and okay with that then go to PE. I always liked going my own route which is why I had to at least try doing this internship Jr year. Also if you can go MFPE then obviously do that no brained. Aorry if this post is long, ugly, and filled with typos, the WSO app on phone sucks. Anyway hope you got something out of my long ass post. Thx.
Did you find Moyer challenging when you read it for the first time?
idk I feel like challenging isn’t the right word. I never feel like any finance knowledge is beyond anybody, and truly want to believe that so saying it’s difficult might not be the right word. Through the specificity and highly contextual nature certain parts of RX can be abstract and that created a bit of cluelessness in my opinion because there’s no context to connect the dots. like Moyer was good at adding some of that context, so while I obviously can’t say I’m an RX genius I don’t feel like it’s challenging as much as I first perceived it could be. As far as first time through, I’ll be honest and say I really just skimmed past a lot of stuff that got too specific, but when I went back to re read I would if it was something interesting, and at different stages I had different knowledge so looking at those specific parts later was a better way to get through it. Definitely didn’t “read” read through it the first time like I would a regular book or article or something.
Thanks for the response! What is the size of the fund you are at now? And do you think that plays into it greatly... being at a 2B fund vs a 20B fund in terms of being able to lateral to a MF one day?
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