Thank you all for the great input. This is what makes AF so great. Good advice and friendly people!
Zenji, IMO, take the job unless you are very confident on getting a PE position through connections. Being unemployed at this (seemingly prolonged) downturn would suck a lot of ambition and self-esteem out of you. Entry level PE/VC is hard to break into, as you will be competing against 2nd/3rd year ibanking analysts (that couldn’t survive the lifestyle or got weed out), top MBA grads, or industry veterans. It’s not impossible though, if you are covering early-stage industries such as alternative energy, Internet/SAAS/gaming. If you are going to be covering, say Airline, Automotive or Media, bad luck; people would rather hire experienced bankers in those fields. Do you know which industry you will help covering? Your bonuses will be directly correlated to how much inflow/outflow/favorable the industry you cover. At sell-side, money is made from only generating trades and relationships. Investment ideas won’t give you squad for bonus. It takes way more luck than skill to be famed like Meridith Whitney.
vitaminc Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > > Entry level PE/VC is hard to break into, as you > will be competing against 2nd/3rd year ibanking > analysts (that couldn’t survive the lifestyle or > got weed out) I don’t think this is accurate. There are certain PE firms that work people as hard as they did in banking (like Blackstone, KKR, and Cerberus for example); while others prefer to leave banking for PE because it’s not a service-oriented role. Plus, there’s at least as much upside in PE as there is in banking, if not more, so I think your implications are mistaken if you think that the people that work in PE or VC couldn’t “hack it” in banking. It’s more like they were good at what they did, found an opportunity with better work-life balance and more financial upside, and went for it. It’s fine that you don’t work in banking or PE since I guess people can’t expect you to know everything about an industry you don’t work in, but the point is that people get into coveted PE/VC roles because of their merits – meaning being good at what they do – as opposed to being “weeded out” of banking.
^ | agreed. i know several people who are in PE, making better money, and working far less hours. pretty sure thats the way to go.
numi, I apologize for the misleading statements. PE/VC firms certainly attracts the top talent pool from banking and the respective industries and definitely offers a better life style. Hell any other job offers better lifestyle than first year ibanking analyst or research associates.