WSO Podcast | E101: Strategy Consulting (Not MBB) to Private Equity Associate
About
In this episode, learn how @mstrat spent three years in a large consulting firm before making the jump to a middle-market private equity firm. Learn about the recruiting process for consulting out of undergrad, how he leveraged two internship offers to get into the city and group he wanted, how to position yourself for private equity recruiting coming from a consulting background and what resources he used to land the offer (hint, you might have heard of it before...)
WSO Mentors
Want to work with @mstrat? Click here
WSO Q&A
Check out @mstrat's recent Q&A here
WSO Podcast
Or Listen to the Podcast Here:
Apple Podcasts
Spotify
Stitcher
Resources:
WSO Podcast (Episode 101) Transcript:
Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:00:06] Hello and welcome. I'm Patrick Curtis. Your host and chief monkey, and this is the Wall Street Oasis podcast. Join me as I talk to some of the community's most successful and inspirational members to gain valuable insight into different career paths and life in general. Let's get to it. In this episode, learn how Mstrat spent three years in a large consulting firm before making the jump to a middle market private equity firm. Learn about the recruiting process for consulting out of undergrad, how he leveraged two internship offers to get into the city and group he wanted. How to position yourself for private equity recruiting, coming from a consulting background and what resources he used to land the offer. Hint you might have heard of it before. Enjoy. All right, Amstrad, thanks so much for joining the Wall Street Voices podcast.
Mstrat: [00:01:00] Hey, thanks for having me, Patrick,
Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:01:01] To be great. If you could just give listeners a quick summary of your bio.
Mstrat: [00:01:05] Sure, I went to a target school top twenty five studied math and economics. From there, I interned my junior year at a big consulting company. Think Deloitte, Accenture, BWC and I interned there that senior summer. And then I came back for a full time offer. I've been there for about three and a half to four years. It's been a great, great experience. I've been working and cost restructurings, revenue growth, financial transactions, so it's been a wild ride. But I've learned a lot. I've looked at it as like a mini business school experience. Most recently, though, I've made the transition to to private equity. I've recently accepted an offer from a lower middle firm and based in New York City, and I'm looking to share that knowledge with the folks about how I made that slightly difficult transition from management consulting to private equity.
Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:02:05] Yeah, I appreciate you coming on. I think we've probably this is episode one and one, by the way. I think we we've probably had a few people who've made that jump, but not that many. And so I think it's useful to get some other perspectives. I appreciate you kind of sharing this. So let's go all the way back to your undergrad days. You're studying math and econ. It was kind of consulting always on the radar. When did you kind of think, Hey, this is this is for me? Like, was it more like, Oh, your peers kind of told you this is a good place to be by junior year you supplied with everybody else and kind of fell into it?
Mstrat: [00:02:38] Yeah, I think peer is definitely we're a big factor, but I wasn't in the business school. I think the business school, everybody's always thinking banking. So my peers weren't there. Some of them were interning at Fortune 500 companies. Others were maybe even going the academic route. So I was trying to consulting, though, because, you know, I was really interested in working with and eventually becoming a C-suite executive at a Fortune 500 company. I wanted that exposure to working with clients, right, traveling, having that, you know, bit of an extravagant lifestyle. But I also was very attracted to the skill set that I wanted to learn, which really was two foundational pillars. I wanted to, of course, be an Excel monkey, have that skill set, but as well. On top of that, I wanted to also be able to present the clients really and have real meaningful relationships with clients and be comfortable in those situations. And you know, on top of that, I love to travel, so it was just a natural fit for me.
Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:03:36] Yeah. And when you kind of came into your sophomore year, you knew like you wanted to do management consulting already. Like, when did you kind of think this is what I'm going to do? Or was it more like you were applying to like corporate finance for FDD-LTE, LDP programs, stuff like that, like during your junior year as well?
Mstrat: [00:03:54] No. Yeah, I didn't apply to any corporate finance as much. I knew I wanted to get, you know, either a consulting or banking career out of school. But yeah, I was more attracted to the consulting lifestyle and the consulting ways of working, so it just felt like a natural fit at the time.
Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:04:11] Yeah. And talk to me a little bit about like the recruiting. So they're coming on campus similar to banking. They're doing like the first round, like first round interviews. And then I assume it's a lot very case interview heavy.
Mstrat: [00:04:25] Yeah, it was it was so of course, it was on campus recruiting, you know, there's 100 kids showing up for each of the companies, you know, intro sessions where everybody's fighting to get that business card. So that was a lot. But you know, after that, after securing a few
Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:04:40] Bucks for the business cards, were you able to elbow your way in or did you kind of hang back and try to play a more cool?
Mstrat: [00:04:45] I played it more cool. I actually found one. I kind of was stepping back away from, you know, there's always circles of like 10 or 15 students around these professionals. My strategy was kind of hanging back and kind of waiting for them to be either heading towards the refreshments or making a move that was away from the crowd and kind of catching them there. I caught one of them, got his card, and that's that's how I got into the first round.
Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:05:09] Very cool, and do you feel like if you didn't have that card or didn't get that, you would have still had a first round interview or no?
Mstrat: [00:05:16] Tough to say with this firm specifically that I'm at, you know, anything's possible, but I'm confident that, you know, I had other first rounds without meeting anybody, so it would have worked out. But with this firm specifically, that's just that's just how it played out.
Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:05:28] So how many consulting firms do you feel like you apply to in your leading in your junior year? Going for that internship was this sophomore? And tell me what, like the recruiting cycle was at sophomore year, you were dropping resumes for the junior year internship, was it?
Mstrat: [00:05:40] That's right. Yeah, yeah. So it was like sophomore fall. We are having some crazy.
Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:05:45] Yeah, yeah.
Mstrat: [00:05:46] Well, there was the intro sessions and then I remember I was on spring break when I accepted the offer. So the interviews are probably early in in the second semester
Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:05:54] Of sophomore year. Yeah, sophomore junior summer. Yeah, exactly. So what were you doing, sophomore summer?
Mstrat: [00:06:02] Um, sophomore summer, I was at a fixed income fund just kind of in there reporting and a work, just kind of getting some sea legs in the in the workforce. And yeah, it wasn't really exactly what I wanted, but it was an internship for the resume. You know,
Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:06:20] That makes sense. Totally makes sense. Ok, so you get you get the offer. Tell me a little bit about like how many resume drops you did, what the resume drops to kind of first round interviews look like. Was it like twenty resume drops and like five first round interviews? Or was it like higher? And then did you have multiple internship offers? It was like for you, like hang on to last year and this was the one that came through and you were you were psyched or tell me about that.
Mstrat: [00:06:43] Yeah, sure. You can't resume drops as like online through OCR or just those intersections. Oh, well, I mean, with that in mind, then I probably did like a hundred, but I went through and just like, drop my name anywhere, you know, to me, I just wanted as many opportunities as possible, as many offers as possible. Yeah, I probably had about was the
Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:07:02] Only consulting, though, or are you bank dropping to banking
Mstrat: [00:07:04] Everything? No, I didn't. Really, I didn't really. I wasn't attracted to banking, so I don't want to say I didn't resume drop, but mostly consulting firms and just even corporate finance roles, even though I knew I wasn't as interested. I just kind of wanted to get as many options in front of me as possible.
Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:07:18] And I think that's smart, even if it's not for the offers for the interview reps. I think it's super.
Mstrat: [00:07:24] That's what I was thinking. Yeah, so I even I just wanted as many interview reps as possible and meet as many people as possible because similar to what we talk about later with the private equity process, you just got to get in front of as many people as possible.
Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:07:36] Cool. Ok, so you're doing the job. So say a hundred firms. How many first round do you think you had, like 20 or 10,
Mstrat: [00:07:43] Probably 15 to 20 and then came back for about five full processes, two of which I was really interested in. One was my last firm. I got an offer from another and then kind of used that other offer to push my way into this current firm.
Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:07:59] So tell me how you did that. So you got two internship offers basically exactly around the same time around spring break or right after you got back from spring break.
Mstrat: [00:08:10] Yeah, right before spring break, I got another. And then during spring break, I got an offer from my current firm. But it was for DC and a group that I didn't like. So what I did was I kind of just use that other offer and said, Hey, well, they're offering me New York City and in this group. So what can you do to match that? And they ended up adjusting and bringing me to New York and getting me into the group I wanted. So that's how I used it.
Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:08:34] But how did you how did you phrase it? Did you say, how can you match that? Or do you say, is there any do you do it in a way that was more kind of soft, like, is there any way you might be able to get me into New York or did it?
Mstrat: [00:08:44] Yeah. So I mean, that's four years ago. So it's tough to remember the exact because I think though,
Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:08:49] I think you've got to be careful, right? Because you don't want if you want to go to like Firm A and Firm B is giving you like, you know, the kind of the location you want, the firm A is kind of the firm you want. It can be tricky, right?
Mstrat: [00:09:05] Oh, absolutely, so I just felt like I had nothing to lose, right, because I really had an offer, right? And it was an internship, so I could always come back. Senior year and go through this whole process again. Yeah. So, you know, looking back, maybe I was a bit too aggressive.
Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:09:19] That's fine. No, it's fine. I mean, like you said, you have nothing to lose. So you said, you know, is there any way you can match this somehow or whatever? And they said, yes, they're like, Sure,
Mstrat: [00:09:27] Oh, it was a back and forth, probably for about 48 hours. And then I also had a secondary connection who was at the firm, and he was kind of giving me advice and actually encouraging me to be a bit aggressive because they would respect that. That's what the advice I got. So that's kind of what pushed me to be a bitch. Strong arm in the process.
Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:09:49] So anything else you negotiated besides going to New York, a specific group you wanted to be in?
Mstrat: [00:09:55] Yeah, specific. Well, really, it was New York first. I just that's what I wanted to be. I knew that. And because I already had another offer in New York, it was just an easy thing to push for the group. Yeah. So within my company, there is, you know, there's strategy. There's what you would consider like management consulting, there's technology, there's a bunch of different things. And at the time, my school was recruiting for all of them. So you didn't really know which group you were going for, which is very confusing at the time. And they placed me in a group that I didn't really want to be in right. I wanted to be in strategy, and I had the strategy often from the other firm. So I was like, OK, I need to be in strategy and I want to be in New York. And that's that's kind of where I kind of
Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:10:35] Tell me why you wanted to be in strategy versus the other groups. And if you can tell me a little bit more about the other groups and why you kind of when you had that leverage, why you used it to get into strategy, what was your thought process?
Mstrat: [00:10:44] Yeah. So my thought process was I don't know how long I'm going to be in consulting, right? I don't know how many, how many years I want to do this. I know banking consulting, everybody gets burned out and I wanted to be in the strategy group because the projects were shorter sprints. They allowed me to meet more clients, develop new skills and kind of just have a faster pace. And I thought a higher growth trajectory at the time. Whereas some other groups you may be on a project for like six to eight, like six to eight months. And granted, you might learn so much on that project. It may be great for you, but you know, as a young undergrad, I was like, OK, I want to be exposed to as many different companies, as many different industries as possible, right? Because I didn't really have a fix on which industry or which group necessarily or which function I really wanted to be aligned to. So what reps you want? I wanted reps, and that's what it was, and I knew that that strategy was reps compared to other routes.
Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:11:37] So when you started kind of getting before this whole interview process, where were you? Had you found Wall Street Oasis at that point? Did you know we had a consulting course?
Mstrat: [00:11:48] Oh, no, not at all. I didn't. I didn't know about. So maybe I like casually looked at it like during my Google searches that we all make. But no, I really didn't dive into who until probably about a year ago.
Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:12:02] Ok, cool. So you're basically probably studying like the traditional guides, like the casing points in the world and that type of stuff or the. Any other courses or stuff you recommend for people?
Mstrat: [00:12:16] Oh, what did I take back then? I think there was a Harvard Business School case packet, there was a Ross in Michigan case packet, and I also had a McKinsey and a Bain one, just like through the networks at my school. So I found two or three other people who are interviewing for consulting firms and we just kind of dove into it together for about a month straight in preparation.
Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:12:42] Yeah, yeah. Doing the getting the reps and doing the mock interviews is painful, but it's like so important. So you're ready. Ok, so you're going in. Do you get the offers you? You use some leverage with two offers, which is which is cool. You get into the strategy group, but you want at the firm you want and then tell me what it's like. What's the internship like?
Mstrat: [00:13:04] The internship was high profile big company. It was going through a massive change. It was struggling and this my firm was brought in to really kind of turn them around and especially at their cost base. It was, it was cool. I got to travel to Chicago. It was a great team. It was, you know, I got to meet great people, get responsibility. And also they treated the interns really well and took us on a couple of different trips, like on some weekends to really sell us. So I really enjoyed it and I really left that summer just thinking, you know, this is this is the type of work I want to be doing and in this environment. So I was very happy with it.
Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:13:45] And so when did you know in terms of how many first question, how many kind of other interns were there in that group with you?
Mstrat: [00:13:53] Would you say in New York, I guess, oh, in New York, it was probably about twenty five.
Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:13:59] Ok, do you know what the percentage of the people that got offers that came back with it? Most of the you?
Mstrat: [00:14:05] Um, probably, I would say at least at least fifteen of us came back. I'd probably say close to 20 of us got offers. I don't remember many more than a handful not getting one. I would say once you got the internship, you really it was your offer to lose.
Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:14:19] Why do you say that? Just because the people who didn't get the offers kind of just either checked out or just didn't want it, you think?
Mstrat: [00:14:26] Tough to say because they weren't on my project, but from what I heard through the grapevine, they just those the people who didn't get offered is just weren't stepping up to the plate right away. And I think as an intern, you're not expected to do a lot. You're not expected to come in and produce a ton of value, but you just have to have the right attitude. It's like a go getter willing to stay up late, complete a very, very simple task that is probably time consuming, repetitive, repetitive
Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:14:53] Database, work, excel, work. Yet I get it
Mstrat: [00:14:56] Exactly, and you just have to be willing to step up and do it. And then at the same time, you also if, like the MD says, let's get a drink at like Tuesday at 11 p.m. in the hotel lobby like you've got to go to that too. Yes, you've got to be a combination of all hands on deck ready to step up and do very simple, mind numbing things. But then also what they would say pass the airport test, right? And being cool and somebody that we could see ourselves working with. And that's more of that is from now I'm on the other side, right? And I see interns come in and that's where I've learned all that.
Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:15:26] Cool. Well, that's interesting, yeah, I think you oftentimes you get people thinking they can just schmooze and not do the work or you get people who think they can just do the work and not and not the schmoozing and the networking guy.
Mstrat: [00:15:39] Yeah, it's a very delicate balance. Very delicate balance. Yeah.
Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:15:42] You've got to do both and try to develop a good rep. Ok, so you obviously got the offer. Tell me about any other kind of shopping the offer. Any time you were given, you were given 30 days to kind of accept what was the what was the timeline looking like?
Mstrat: [00:15:56] Yeah, it was pretty short. It was. It was probably by the end of. October, maybe mid-October, I had so the my internship ended, probably the second week of August, I think. Yeah, that makes sense. Two months. They probably had it. No, it really wasn't bad. The only thing was recruiting didn't really start until like the first week of October.
Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:16:17] And they know that course.
Mstrat: [00:16:19] They do. So you have to have a really good idea that you're going to get another offer or else you kind of just have to take this one. I was comfortable with it. As I said, I really like my experience and I thought it was a great place to start my career. So I had no regrets, but I could see how other people would be a little annoyed with that.
Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:16:34] Was your signing bonus?
Mstrat: [00:16:36] Yeah, there was.
Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:16:38] Do you mind sharing around? Yeah, it was, it was 10K. Yeah, OK. And then specifically, so you're kind of going into now your junior year or sorry, your senior year senior year group are happy because you have a job.
Mstrat: [00:16:52] Yeah. Was probably the greatest, like nine months of my life. Yeah.
Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:16:57] And so kind of getting ready starting at this large consulting firm. Tell me, what was it like? What was the hardest part when you first kind of hit, hit the desk, when you were put on your first engagement and tell me about the dynamics of who you were placed with? Like, is there a staffer like there is in banking and how fast were those initial kind of engagements? Where is it like one month? Did you get stuck on something that was four months? I'd love to hear just a little bit of that.
Mstrat: [00:17:25] Yeah, no, that's important because at my firm, of course, there's what you would call a staffer, but he or she is less going to assign you to roles and more are just going to make sure that you're chargeable and staffed. So you have a lot of leeway and a lot of room to manoeuvre so that you can kind of choose your first project and kind of network with the groups or industries that you're most interested in. So I thought that was a cool thing at my firm. But at the same time, at the end of the year, if you wasted too much time getting on a project and you just weren't on projects long enough, and you know the percent that you're on a project is very low, then I know people that go after that first year. So I was aware of that because I had interned and people kind of warned me. So within two weeks, I was staffed with the same group that I interned with.
Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:18:16] But tell me, go back to that a little bit. So some people were had been let go the previous year because you're saying that they didn't have enough billable hours like the percentage because they had waffled a little bit about what they wanted.
Mstrat: [00:18:28] Yeah, I mean, so it's tough, it's tricky because you can come in and the business can be slow, and there's just not a lot of opportunities for you, but at the end of the day, you're responsible to get, let's say, 80 percent billable hours. Mm hmm. Right. So it doesn't matter if you're a first year or second year, you need to hit that target or else you're going to be considered to be let go at the end of the fiscal year. That's just how it is. And so
Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:18:51] When you started, how many people were let go, what percentage of like the analysts
Mstrat: [00:18:55] That we came up with, like twenty five. So I would say, like only like two or three let go for that reason. But still, it's like 10 percent. Yeah, yeah.
Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:19:02] Yeah, yeah. Ok. So yeah, it keeps people honest.
Mstrat: [00:19:06] You can't mess around. It's tricky sometimes. Well, we always say bench life and consulting is like the best life, but you know, you got to you can't stay on it too long or else you're getting in trouble.
Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:19:16] Yeah, it's interesting. So like I guess to me, it's kind of foreign because I was in banking and it was like there was no bench ever. It was like a gun to your head, like fire drills, nonstop, 24-7, like not sleeping. Whereas like, I get it, like something comes to an end. And then there's kind of this break. Tell me, like is there is an internal like database or something where people are like. Saying We need an analyst for this, this and this, and you're kind of looking through that and putting your hat in the rink. How does that whole assignment process work?
Mstrat: [00:19:46] Yeah, that's a good question. I think it's a little tricky, but think of it first. Imagine I would say the bench life is equivalent to like that break moment that you had, but like, probably much longer. And when you're there and you aren't on a project, if somebody were to ask you to join theirs, you have to have a good reason. You can't just say, I don't want to get staffed on this. I'm not interested. You can't say that as an analyst, you need to be able to say, Hey, I'm actually waiting to join XYZ Project, and I'm very interested in this industry, so I'd prefer to join this one. And if you have like a strong answer like that and your career counsellor can kind of back you up, then it's doable, but you can't know you can't just kind of sit at home and say, No, I'm not interested. No, I'm not interested. Or else the staffers you know in our language would just assign you anyway. So you need to be working at it. Have your own pipeline of projects that you're interested in. And if you do it right, you can you can really like, cultivate your career the way you want to.
Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:20:45] Well, what would you suggest for people like as you're trying to map that and decide what projects are on? What would you suggest for somebody who's looking to get to the by side, looking to get to private equity like you successfully transition? What types of deals should they be? What kind of project should they be looking at?
Mstrat: [00:21:02] Yeah. So I think cost restructurings are scale that you must have, just like being able to speak the language with private equity guys about, you know, what are we going to do to this company once we buy it? And I think that's the attractiveness of hiring a consultant. First is knowing that after perhaps this financial skills aren't compared to a banker, but once we have this company, he's going to know what to do with it. He's going to make sure that we can return an investment. So I would say cost restructuring is helpful if you can get on M&A deals, which it depends on the firm. It depends on who has a strong practice. But if you can get on some acquisitions where maybe the consulting firm is doing due diligence of the target, right, that that is helpful and kind of showing that you can assess a potential target is critical. I know, like you know, Bain has their PE practice that does that. So if you can get on projects like that, then I think it's a good transition. And just being close to the financials at the same time, right? So either working in the finance practice right or depends on each firm. But being close to the financial statements, so it's not like you're picking up a whole new language. When you begin studying for your next career transition, you have to be you have to feel like you have to build a bit of a track record that you know how to analyse financials. Mm hmm.
Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:22:18] That makes sense. So I mean, you, I think that's one of the probably the biggest struggle for consultants is to convince PE firms that they have the financial chops to be able to handle it right in terms of building an LBO model. So tell me how you prepared. I think we talked offline and know how you prepared, but
Mstrat: [00:22:33] This is not an advertisement, but I did. I did purchase the PE course and completed it front to back. That was great. I also took CFI Corporate Finance Institute has some a good finance basics course that got me, got my chops ready to then go on to the course. So that was helpful. On top of that, I was reading. I was reading reports. I was reading like, what's the like? The Bain Private Equity Industry report they released every February, just getting a sense of that and we'll get into the networking, but then also chatting with professionals because they know a lot better. They know a lot more than any reports going to tell you. And that just started to get me into the mode of thinking like them and thinking what they would want to see on my resume or in my experience.
Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:23:21] So you were in consulting for almost four years, correct?
Mstrat: [00:23:24] Yeah, that's right.
Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:23:25] Before the September, tell me when you started kind of thinking of this, you know, you had been promoted to senior analyst and then a title to strategy consultant. And so when were you thinking of actually making the shift? So when did you start the whole process and then how long did it take you?
Mstrat: [00:23:44] Yeah, it's a good question. So I had the first promotion, the first year I got a second. The second year and then I was like, OK, those are great, good quick promos. Now it's time to think about what I want to do. And I would say about they're about two and a half years in is when I started thinking, you know what, I really want to be is an investor. So to me, I started kind of working backwards and saying, OK, so if I want to be a private equity investor, what do I have to build? What skills do I need? What projects do I need? And that's after that. That second promotion to effectively associate is where I started trying to really craft my story in the long term. And then I would say in my third year is when I started really digging in and building the skill sets. So like six months after that is when I really started building the skill sets and taking your course and everything else.
Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:24:33] And in terms of let's talk about just how you started building your network in this space or how you started talking with recruiters. When did you start? When did you feel like you were ready to kind of start talking with companies? And when did you feel like, OK, this is right? Was it a couple of months of Prep? Was it just a month now?
Mstrat: [00:24:51] Now, so let me run you through the timeline. So it was June, June, I took June and July, took these two forces started really digging into them, and then probably September, I was trying to just churn out LBO models really quickly and just build like one a day. And that was a goal I set for myself. Just keep building on doing it in under a half hour or depending how big it is under an hour and just getting ready for that. And I didn't until I was done with that. I wasn't even ready to start reaching out to like second degree contacts and really cold calling people because I felt like I was wasting their time if I wasn't ready to go. Yeah. So by October, that's when I really started laying the foundation for like building the network, building that funnel and being ready to pounce on those leads when they came through.
Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:25:38] And so how did you go about building that funnel? We're using LinkedIn basically just like second degree connections alum. What were you doing?
Mstrat: [00:25:46] Yes, so first started with like first degree connections, my friends who were already in the space or who were in finance and just like always asking people for advice because you never asked. Everybody's always talked about this on this blog, on this podcast, but you never ask for advice you always ask for or sorry, you never ask for a favor. You never ask for a connection. You always ask for advice. And people, I think, are very open to and very happy to give advice. So when you ask them that you're very you're more likely to get a response, that's helpful. And that's and that will actually progress you.
Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:26:19] And then oftentimes they offer to help anyways.
Mstrat: [00:26:21] Exactly if you don't ask, then they might jump the gun. But if you don't ask and they don't offer, they were never going to help you anyway.
Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:26:27] Yeah, fair. Ok, so you're basically starting to build this network. You're feeling confident about your LBO modeling skills at this point. Your financial modeling skills? And did you feel like you had enough? Client or call a deal or call them deal reps, but enough client experience where you could speak intelligently about the financials of your clients.
Mstrat: [00:26:50] Yeah, absolutely. And I think I think it's all about just speaking a different language, right? It's consultants don't call them like cost restructurings. They call them like enterprise transformations, right? And like on Wall Street, they'll probably talk more about a cost restructuring, and that's what they referred to. So like an example like that, I would say trying to change your resume from like consulting lingo to financial lingo and really taking like zooming out on your engagement and looking at what's like the big picture, what was the CFO or the CEO trying to accomplish and how does that tie back to their financials? Because at the end of the day, that's what each engagement is about right there. They're ultimately trying to boost their top line or their bottom line with you. So if you can, if you can kind of zoom out and just and just rephrase or or restructure your experience to kind of be along those guardrails.
Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:27:38] Yeah, just making sure you have the right buzzwords and all that stuff. Cool. So you're so you're basically trying to make a very tough transition. Consultants notoriously have a tough time in breaking into private equity unless they're at like the Bain to the world. And even then, I think it's still harder than. The typical like target investment banks that all these recruiters just flock to every year, two years, two years early, by the way, before the kids even start their recruiting.
Mstrat: [00:28:10] So they just I don't, I don't understand. So yeah, so
Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:28:14] Yeah, they're getting they're getting out of training and then they're getting hit up by recruiters literally in their job
Mstrat: [00:28:18] Isn't supposed to end and they don't know how to do anything yet.
Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:28:20] Exactly. So you're coming into this kind of very much off cycle, very much, much later in the process. You're older at this point. You're like a veteran at this point.
Mstrat: [00:28:32] Yeah, no, it's true.
Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:28:33] So were you, were you? Intentionally targeting lower middle market private equity firms where you're just being realistic, like the microphones aren't going to look at me and that at such a structured process or what was the thought process around that?
Mstrat: [00:28:46] Yeah, I think it's a number of factors. But when I really started, it was when I really started, like looking actively probably October, November and to me, I was like kind of late for the on cycle. And at the same time I am, I was more of a veteran at that point, and I know that a lot of the on cycle firms, they just want somebody with two years banking ready to do two and two and either go up or go out. So to me, it didn't really. It looked like that to be a more difficult climb. But at the same time, I wanted to be at a firm that really valued my operations experience, right? And that I wasn't going to just apply financial engineering to my role. I was looking for a job that would value all of my consulting experience and then allow me to perfect my new investment skill set.
Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:29:28] How did I find? Did you find did you seek out those specific firms or were you just doing the more blanket blast? Just talk to everybody and anybody in the space and try to sell that experience. Like, were you specifically targeting those firms that can at least preach the operational focus?
Mstrat: [00:29:47] Yes, absolutely. So I was actually looking for smaller ones because I knew that the associate role was typically or more often a blended role, and it wasn't just investing and hopefully they wouldn't have outsourced consultants and they wouldn't have an in-house due diligence team and the and they would appreciate that their associate would have the capability of performing due diligence himself.
Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:30:08] Got it. Ok, so yeah, tell me how you keep going. I'm curious how it how it evolved.
Mstrat: [00:30:13] Yeah, so I was constantly throughout this entire process, just like reaching out, cold emailing and cold LinkedIn messaging contacts that were second degree. You know, when I could getting a connection with through friends or through other contacts. So that was always like one phase that was always rolling. The second was meeting and reaching out to all the recruiting firms every single.
Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:30:37] Give me some numbers in terms of number of people you were, you were talking to per week or so or per day.
Mstrat: [00:30:42] So I would say over the past 10 weeks, I probably spoke to like 50 to maybe a little more than 10 weeks. I probably spoke to 50 or 60 people. So I would say I tried to have like three to four calls a week. Hmm. Ok. Yep. So I was just reaching out, and I would say that those cold emails probably got a hit rate of 20 percent, you know, 15 to 20 percent. And I only reached out to university alumni or my firm alumni. So, you know, I always focus on them or else people are less likely to actually answer. So that was helpful. Know I actually did it. So I used your company database and you know, you have like ten thousand lines in there. So I would only I would filter on anybody who you had their email right or else it was to me, it was less helpful. And so I went through a list of like five hundred firms that you had their email and they weren't a mega-cap. And I would go on LinkedIn and search that firm, overlay my school and my firm right as alumni. And then now I had the email of all these people on LinkedIn who who were either, you know, related to me through school or related to me through my firm. And then I would send them a cold email just asking for 10 15 minutes of their time. And you know, you never ask for more than that because they don't really want to give more than that. But yeah, that's kind of how the process went. And that's that really helped me build my chops, like with interviewing and just not being afraid to be rejected.
Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:32:10] Mm hmm. And so tell me, like so you said about 20 percent hit rate on those like cold emails to calls. You got enough calls like. He said 50 calls or so. Yeah. So like, you were talking to a lot of people. Was there a specific like set and break where there are a couple processes you got put into because of this?
Mstrat: [00:32:33] Yeah. So I did get put into one process through this. I think it showed me that the cold emailing can be effective, but I got most of my processes through first degree connections who I already knew beforehand or through recruiters and recruiters. Go ahead.
Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:32:49] Yeah. Tell me about recruiters.
Mstrat: [00:32:51] Tell me about the recruiters. I reached out to all of them to reach out to associates. I would work my way up the ladder until they would schedule an in-person appointment with me because I wanted to meet them in person and show up and show that I wasn't just this new investment banking analyst. I was a seasoned professional right. I had experience. I was a veteran and I could really impress the firms that they connected me with. And it worked pretty well. I mean, probably from recruiters. I got a decent chunk of interviews, at least first round and even some I went to the second. So it was pretty good.
Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:33:23] You knew those. Those meetings with the recruiters was like a critical interview for you to show them that you kind of knew exactly why p the type of firm you were looking for all that good stuff.
Mstrat: [00:33:36] Exactly. Or else or else you just kind of get typecast casted right? And that's what I was. I realized in the first reach out, you know, they only kind of slotted me for due diligence roles. And I understand that. Of course, it's I mean, they have to make their money and they have to they have to match you up to where they think, where standards say that you'll excel and a consultant and into a due diligence slot is very similar. And it's a very applicable background. So I get that, but I felt that meeting them in person and this helped. Meeting them in person allowed me to really tell my story the way I wanted it to be told, right?
Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:34:10] Ok, cool. So it worked. They actually started putting you in some processes for investing roles. And then and then what did you strike out? Did you get to fun around and the first one and get the get the offer? How did it work?
Mstrat: [00:34:24] No, I mean, I probably from recruiters. I probably got about like seven or eight first rounds. Probably, yeah. Yeah. And this was off cycle. And these are people who just kind of worked out that way. I don't think it would have been as successful on cycle for a consultant, but I would say overall between recruiters. And then also first to reconnections, I probably had about 15 first rounds or meet and greets, even like getting coffee with the associate or something. Yeah, and then probably went on at the later rounds with around five. Yeah, or really four and then two offers or rather two final rounds in one offer.
Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:35:02] That's great. And then in terms of the let's start with the after the first rounds of the four kind of. Ones that you went kind of a little bit further after that first round. Tell me what those interviews were like, were they all on site?
Mstrat: [00:35:17] Yeah, they were. They were on site. One had a take home model beforehand, so you had to kind of pass the model and if that was good, then you came in and kind of walk them through it. So, so that was helpful. Just going back to your course and kind of take a model, right and saying, OK, you know, I can build this and I can make it look right and it can pass all the tests for the industry. So that was helpful. You know, they did. I found that they grilled me a lot on just like financial brainteasers. You know, it was like if X happens on the income statement, how does that affect cash flow and balance sheet? A lot of questions like that or we're just kind of like mental math. They wanted to make sure that my mind thought in numbers. And of course, I was a math major. So that didn't really, really slow me down.
Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:36:04] That's great. Yeah, I figured as like with the consulting background, they probably were like, Does this kid understand accounting and financial statements and stuff? They you probably got grilled a little bit harder than the typical investment banking candidate. Ok, so fair enough. So you kind of got into the four kind of, I'll call it, middle rounds, two final rounds. Tell me what the final rounds was. It was it really intense? Were you meeting like 10 people? You know, you said you had that one take home, was there any kind of onsite LBO modeling tests
Mstrat: [00:36:35] That you did? No, I didn't have any on site. I just had one take home. I mean, I only got to and that was one of the finals in the other. There was no there was no modeling test, which I thought was interesting, just kind of like talking through an LBO. But I think that firm where I did interview with quite a few folks about six folks, they just assumed that I could learn the modeling and they were really more, more focused on like how I thought and kind of relaying my project experience and how it's relevant.
Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:37:02] Interesting. Were they interviewing other consultants or do you know or were you kind of the only one with this type of background in the process or you had no idea?
Mstrat: [00:37:10] Yeah, you know, I didn't ask that. I didn't really want to know. Yeah. Hoping that I was the only consultant, so I would be kind of standing out from the bankers.
Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:37:18] Ok, and so tell me kind of when was the how it all went down? So you had the two final rounds of one offer when they made you the offer? Was it do you mind sharing kind of range of comp in terms of like how they structured it?
Mstrat: [00:37:35] Yeah, sure. So. So that was the one I just told you about that, that interview that was not really financially focused. So that one, I didn't get an offer for the other one. I had the final round over Zoom, actually, because we were in quarantine. Wow. So this is really, yeah, that was like two weeks ago. Ok. Yeah. So yeah, thank you. So we went through that. It was, it was. It was interesting. I definitely used your database of salaries just to kind of get a feel on what to expect. Going in this range was one hundred and fifteen to one hundred and thirty five base, which is pretty standard. And you know, it was a smaller firm. So I got a little piece of the carry as well with hopefully a cash bonus based on performance.
Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:38:21] That's awesome. Little, Carrie. Awesome.
Mstrat: [00:38:23] Very little, Carrie. Yeah, very little. But hey, oh, it's like it's not even a percent.
Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:38:28] So it used to not even be offered to pre MBAs.
Mstrat: [00:38:32] So this is a smaller firm, so it kind of made sense.
Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:38:35] Yeah, very cool. Well, very exciting, man. Very exciting. Are you? When do you end up starting there in the summer if you can go into work assuming?
Mstrat: [00:38:45] Yeah. So apparently it should be July 1st. But you know, of course, if there's a quarantine or stay at home still happening, then probably August 1st, maybe September 1st. Hopefully not, though.
Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:38:55] Have you given notice to your consulting firm?
Mstrat: [00:38:57] No, I won't do that until two weeks before. Ok. Yeah, I know. Well, actually, I thought about taking a trip, you know, sort of extravagant trip, but right now I'm not leaving my bedroom. So, you know, where am I going to go with all this happening?
Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:39:12] Fair. Anything else you'd like to share before we call it to the younger listeners or to other consultants that are trying to follow in your footsteps?
Mstrat: [00:39:20] Yeah, I think the younger listeners you have, you have a lot of ways to go. I would say don't try and plan out your whole career. Just keep taking it one step at a time. And if you loosely know what you want to do, that's good enough right now as an undergrad. But I would say for consultants looking to make this this jump, just know it is a grind. It is a pure, I think, a numbers game unless you have a very, very solid connection that can get you right in and just be prepared that this is a bit of a second job, right for a little while, just trying to break into finance. But at the end of the day, it's all worth it. And yeah, I mean, other than that, I'm happy to always take some DMs and give any advice as this moves along.
Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:40:01] Great. Did we have you as a mentor? I can't remember if you joined
Mstrat: [00:40:04] As a mentor. Yeah, yeah. Never asked me anything up right now.
Patrick (CEO of WSO):00:40:07] So awesome. Yeah. So I'm sure I'll have an AMA up, and if you want him as a mentor, you can you know where to find them? Awesome. Well, I appreciate you taking the time out of your busy quarantine life better. I can go another hour. You know, let's just chat about sports that don't exist now. Just get. Yeah, no. I really appreciate you taking the time. And yeah, this should go up in a few weeks.
Mstrat: [00:40:33] Thanks a lot, Patrick, really appreciate you having me on.
Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:40:36] And thanks to you, my listeners at Wall Street, Oasis, if you have any suggestions whatsoever, please don't hesitate to send them my way. Patrick at Wall Street Oasis. And till next time.
or Want to Sign up with your social account?