I know there are lot of folks who go into banking or start on the sell-side ER before moving into the buyside. Anyone out there start off in a portfolio / risk management role at move into PE or M&A?
I would like to know too. Anyone?
I actually don’t know anyone that has done that. Frankly, if you’re in a good hedge fund or asset management role, your financial upside and work-life balance are probably better there than they would be in PE. I for one don’t plan to stay in PE for the long haul, with work-life balance being a major consideration.
To answer your question more directly, the reason you don’t see that type of transition often is the same reason as what you had highlighted in your other thread - deal experience is key, and PE or banking folka want to know that you’re familiar with how deals work and that you’re a very process-driven individual. The one thing asset managers do have is the ability to think critically about investing; however, there’s a lot of other stuff that goes into deals like dealing with lawyers, accountants, other bankers and lenders, and third-party diligence providers - and this is stuff you have to deal with well before you know the outcome of a deal. In other words, there are a lot of additional hoops to jump through to get a deal done and not everyone would enjoy that stuff, especially if they’ve never done it before.
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I see. Thanks for your invaluable input. I certainly relate being that hedge funds may potentially be in the 60-70 hour range as opposed to the 100+ hour weeks. I’m still at a relatively early point pre-MBA (four years post undergrad), so pursuing the M&A path would have changed things up a little.
Yeah, but you can’t change what’s already happened so don’t dwell on it. I’m sure we all think about what could have happened differently if we made choice X instead of choice Y. But, at least it sounds like you’ve got a clearer vision of what you want to do going forward, and as the job market improves, the likelihood of your making a transition will increase. Just keep doing what you’re doing – you’re asking all the right questions so keep being proactive and things will work out
Hi Numi, I might have asked you this before, but are corporate finance experiences regarded as better experiences for PE/VC than AM/PM/ER type roles?
sparty419, if you are getting deal experience in the corporate finance role, then i would say so.
While there are exceptions I see PE to traditional AM route far more often than AM to PE, for the reasons numi mentioned above. No transition is ever as easy as staying where you are as it takes energy to change your inertia. As you get more years of experience under your belt polish and gravitas become more important since there will be more client interaction, in my experience.