What does the average career path for IB>PE look like? How hard is it to stay in and move up?
I’m currently a senior is high school, interesting in IB and PE. From what I’m gathering, the best way to PE is to come out of undergrad to be an IB analyst for a few years, then interview with headhunters to transfer to PE. There’s a lot of info on getting into PE, but I can’t seem to find anything beyond that. I know PE is largely performance based especially compared to IB, but how much so? Do you constantly have to be outperforming everyone to stay in the game? If you are above average, how far/how long can you hope to get in PE? I know there’s very few Partner positions, but can one simply stop at VP or Principal and remain there indefinitely? Or will they eventually be laid off? How hard is it to progress/remain in IB vs. PE? Is it easy to move back from PE to IB if you end up not liking it/not being good enough? My main
concerns arise from the fact that I can’t seem to find a specific career end goal. I get IB > PE and then grinding to get promoted, but where does it stop/settle, or is it never ending? Is it unrealistic to even strive for Partner? What happens if you don’t make it to Partner? Are you out of a job? Can you apply for another PE job regardless of your seniority and get hired? Or, would I have to do something like Corp Fin? What would you do at that point/how common is this? Any insight on the whole process would be greatly appreciated. I know I’m asking a lot of questions, but I can’t seem to wrap my head around the career end game for IB and PE. Thanks.
End goal is greatness obv
First go into university, try a finance internship or two to see if this is even what you would want to do. My suggestion is to not obsess over IB/PE endgames too much until you get that desirable IB summer internship.
No career is set in stone, you could hate finance, or get that PE gig right of college, or leave to a PE fund as a VP in IB (seen this happen more than the average WSO higher schooler would think).
This is all true. In all seriousness, thinking about IB/PE as trapezes you jump between on your way to mythical “greatness” (whatever that means) is a recipe for misery. It’s a pretty common refrain on this forum but the fact is “the track” only works and can be remotely fulfilling if at some level you enjoy your career rather than viewing it as the least risky way to get from point A to upper middle class self sufficiency. The guys who make partner in IB/PE/HF and are unusually successful strive to excel in their field for the sake of excellence, not so they get that IB SA->IB job>PE job>HF. It’s a very different mindset.
Your best bet as a senior in high school is to maximize the opportunities in front of you, explore careers through internships and talk to as many experienced people as possible. There are many ways to succeed in life within and outside finance and your odds of excelling are highest doing something that you can intellectually invest in. Don’t mean to be lecturing at you but I’ve met more miserable finance folks than I can count who went in simply for money or prestige (spoiler alert: not only are they miserable but they usually aren’t excelling).
Right, I will. I was just curious about how it works after years of work at the higher levels. Couldn’t find much info on it online.
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