Vista Equity Partners vs. Financial Sponsors Coverage
Hey wso,
Been on this forum for a little bit and have read some great things. I am a senior at a public school (UMich / UVa/ UCLA) studying engineering. I am interning at top BB (GS/MS/JPM) in Financial Sponsors Group and starting to think about my early carer. Would love to hear people's thoughts on what they would do if given an offer to start a career at BB Sponsors group vs. Vista Equity PE Analyst.
For context, interested in being an investor one day and very interested in an analytical role in my early career.
If you can get it, take the PE offer and run. The next year on cycle PE recruiting is going to be a shit show. You are at a top bank which will help but PE recruiting is far more pedigree focused than IB is so unless you think you have a >50% chance at a BX or KKR then I'd 100% take vista. Though if you are uncertain if you want to go into PE then the broad skill set of IB might make sense but sounds like you are interested in investing.
One thing I will say as someone who went through on cycle, is that it is a total crap shot where people land at the end of the day. No one can adequately figure out who is a good investor or not in the 24 hours that on cycle is so I found a lot of the success came down to luck or a strong connection. That is important for thinking about the risk that comes with the 2 year IB stint to PE path. I recommend to everyone I know to get to the buyside as soon as possible if that is what they are interested in, especially if they have a path into a MF this early on. There are reasonably only a few firms I would say to take over vista so if you turn down an offer from them you basically gamble that you will get one of the 10 offers at the other firms over all of the other target school --> top IB analysts on wall street. Possible, but very very risky IMO
Thanks for this, what are your thoughts on Vista? Have you heard about how analyst program is compared to other shops?
I dont compete against them but in the general PE space they are regarded as the top tech investor along with silver lake and are very thesis oriented from an investing style. I dont know too much about the actual day to day job but I assume it is similar to the other MF PE programs. They are one of the more active firms and recently raised a huge fund so I wouldn't worry too much about not getting the reps/experience
If you know you want to do investing this is a silly question. Go to vista and do your two years there and if you dont like it you still have better exit opps than if you slaved away at whichever of the firms you are interning at
Have heard different things about the anaylst role, e.g maybe less technical than other shops. Interested in investing, but def want to be exposed to technical / analytical side of things as well. That's only rzn I'm wondering what others would think is "better".
If you are looking for a data driven/analytics focused shop then you wont find one better than vista, just look them up/search through their portco's and some of their deals; recently invested in an Indian telecom company a few weeks ago that valued the equity of the company north of $60bn, if I were to guess that was a pretty technical model lol
A few years ago I might have said to take the generalist experience in IB then transition but with how ridiculously competitive PE recruiting has gotten I’d agree with the posts above and say take a PE spot if offered, especially at a firm like Vista
Dolorem officiis consectetur omnis excepturi ut magni inventore. Asperiores fugiat officiis rem omnis soluta occaecati. Earum animi provident fugiat temporibus.
See All Comments - 100% Free
WSO depends on everyone being able to pitch in when they know something. Unlock with your email and get bonus: 6 financial modeling lessons free ($199 value)
or Unlock with your social account...