Hi all,
If you don't get into PE, then what?
Forums seem to say that PE recruiting is much harder than IB recruiting. As such, of people who you know who didn't make it to PE, where do they end up going. Smaller PE firm, stay in IB, what?
Let me know!
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I'm a prospect, but I've heard they either get the A2A promote, which isn't supposed to be that hard to get, they might go to a smaller PE firm sure, or they'll go to corp dev for better WLB. If you were at a BB or EB, the branding on your resume can open a lot of doors for you so there's a lot of different things you can do at this point.
You respawn at the other side of Nuketown
Go to business school for another shot at recruiting
why would u leave to b school just to become a post-mba associate...almost zero chance with post MBA PE with no prior experience
VC/Corp Dev
I know it's hard to believe but there is a sizable portion of folks who don't want to do PE (~30% of my class including myself).
Can confirm this - lots of analysts choosing not to go down the PE path anymore.
why?
Bump
Writing on the wall my man.
Sorry I dont have my glasses what does it say
PE is fairly commoditized now, and while it is certainly still a great gig, the upside for juniors simply isn’t what it once was. From an outside perspective these are the cons I see:
- WLB that is basically banking 2.0 for most people, with work that is also more or less very similar to what they were doing in banking (whether they will admit this is another thing, as idealizing something prior to experiencing it makes it very hard to admit you were wrong).
- Partner track is basically non existent at most funds, and while VP is certainly a good gig, you likely had to pay for the opportunity cost of Bschool to get there, something your friends who stayed in banking didn’t have to do.
- Overall fund performance will inevitably decline because of competition and the already mentioned commoditization of the industry (just like hedge funds), which is not a death sentence, but it does mean that carry (which seems to be the main appeal of PE from a monetary perspective, and is already difficult to come by) will be less relevant.
- Lastly, and this isn’t talked about as much, but if the democrats win this year, expect greater scrutiny of the industry as a whole. Additionally expect an eventual closure of the tax loophole we like to refer to on this site as carry. Maybe not in the next 5 years but certainly within the decade.
So say you enter PE now, do 2 years and then go to Bschool for 2 years. You join an upper to middle market fund, which has decent returns but nothing spectacular (because this is most funds). It’s been 4 years, and you basically got paid the same as your friend in banking the first 2, and then sacrificed payment + paid for Bschool, but that’s ok because now you’ve been at your fund for a year and you’ve been told that on this next fund you’ll get carry right? So now it’s been 5 years, but oh no! Carry is no longer anything special because you get taxed exactly the same on it as you do your annual income (this is just hypothetical to make my point, obviously I don’t know anything with certainty). So now you are a VP at this middle of the road fund, there is no mention of partner track, because that would mean the current partners would receive even less of their already mediocre returns, and you are still working far more than you’d like. And you ask yourself, why did I ever even want this? And your answer? Because you wanted to fit in.
You are sent to the gulag where you face off against another analyst in the same situation with pistols only
Can anyone link a good Corp Dev Thread on here? Also leaning towards not doing PE and looking at other options.
Echoing what was said above. I am at a top BB and a very sizable portion of the class has no desire to pursue PE. However, I have never seen someone be unable to recruit for buyside if they want it. People quickly realize the lifestyle in UMM / MF PE is almost no different than IB and a lot of people don’t think it’s worth it.
just curious what options other than PE / HF do they pursue? corpdev?
Yeah I realized quickly after talking to peers that the hours/work is really no different at the associate level.
Plus it's getting harder and harder to generate 20%+ IRR, and some strategies PE firms utilize are questionable to say the least.
Continue to have a successful and in many cases high paying career in banking, venture, corporate development/strategy, consulting, etc. or switch to something new via graduate school such as politics or law.
You stay on as an associate, benefit from shorter hours as a result of your analyst experience, continue to perform atop your bucket, make MD. Not bad.
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