I’ve gotten most of my jobs either through scuttlebutt network or recruiters. I think many people who view recruiters negatively do not understand the industry. I know it quite well and have had good experience. You just have to know when to say no and not take the interview. Get to know RHI or or KFRC and you may understand how the business works to take advantage of it. Here are the basics:
First, staffing firms have sales people. These are the people who get the go ahead from hiring managers and HR to attempt fill a position. They work a lot with CTOs, CFOs and CIOs. It is relationship driven, but the staffing firm needs to have a license to do business with that company. Want to work at XYZ hedge fund? Find out if the recruiter has a license to do business there.
Then there are the recruiters who call you on LNKD. These people work the position once the sales person has cracked it. For them, they need to get the job filled and in a timely manner. They may only work with specific companies because they are on a team related to specific sales person or vertical. Tell them what company you want to work for and in what geography. Be specific about what type of position you are seeking. If they can’t help you, then they will drop you quick. This is good, because if you lead them on then you are just wasting everyone’s time.
That’s it for now. There are some good recruiters, but generally remuneration is lower for recruiters than for some other positions so most recruiters aspire to get into a sales or management role. Perhaps obviously, this varies by the level position for which they are recruiting.
To add to the discussion, I’m at Wharton right now (presumably the MBA program with best PE placement) and almost everyone who is getting PE interviews right now for summer internships has pre-MBA PE experience (myself included). The ibankers are having a tough time and anyone else is even worse off. That being said, there are 1 or 2 each year that can snag a U.S. PE investing role. Point is, Numi is spot on. Top MBA won’t really help you land in PE unless you were already in PE before MBA. Keep hustling though man…accountant --> IB is a great start and if you keep going at it there are possibilities.
Congratulations on making the accounting to IB switch! How many years did you spend in accounting and in which position? I am taking the same route except I am working for the CFO office at a F500 and getting strategy exposure so I am hoping the transition would be doable… It is my first year and I want to do 2 years there then rotate to IB boutique or consulting either way. I am hoping that I can pass level 1 and 2 of the CFA through hard work as well to add some credentials to my profile.
Do you have any advice/recommendation from your personal experience so I can maximize my chances? Congrats again on the new role and good luck with PE recruiting!
PS: I come from non-target with a 3.7GPA finance (does not mean much I know), but I have great ECs.
You were in PE before and you want to go back to PE after your MBA? What made you think you really needed an MBA? I guess this has to do with many factors out there. I am doing EMBA at Columbia in my early 30s. Here is why I did not go full time MBA when I was in my mid 20s - purely my opinion. I was working for an equity HF in NYC since 22 and by the time I was 25-26 I was certainly not a rain maker but making decent money - made 270k all in back in 2012. I thought to myself, why give this up to go for an MBA for 2 years and pay $120k in tuition when I will probably be in the same place afterwards?? I ain’t gonna be making 600k straight outta MBA so…I stayed in the work force. Now in my 30s, I am doing EMBA not for the education but for the sake of my resume and more importantly, new friends and connection WHILE still working.
Of course I didn’t score a crazy GMAT score like yourself but nonetheless, I want your take on why you quit your (most likely) lucrative career to go back to school only to go back to the same job 2 years later. Why not EMBA or even PT?
One of my friends was forced to do MBA since his firm doesn’t promote usually, so you either had to jump to another place which might be difficult, or go to business school.
I am in a similar boat. Wanted to do MBA for PE but above posters seem to be unanimous in saying that its very difficult. I am in EQR so even more difficult than IBD.
I get where you’re coming from. For me, I would have had to have done it anyway at a certain point for advancement and I also wanted options to go to other PE funds. Also, half of the reason I went was to take a break from working. MBA is about more than getting a job. It is certainly a goal but it is also about building professional and personal relationships. There is certainly work in classes and recruiting involved…but a full-time MBA is also a blast and in my mid-late 20’s it is one last hurrah before slaving away again at a desk in my 30’s and beyond. MBA is like undergrad again but with money.
I worked in accounting for about 5+ years, latterly in management accounting, where the analysis and strategy piece was more sellable to IB.
Re advice/recommendation for getting into IB boutique, I’ll refer you to my response to Igor555 at the top of this thread (who asked, “how did you go from accounting to IB?”).
Overall, my experience was that a combination of relatable experience, a compelling story, personal drive and some luck got me in. CFA (or any exam really) alone is not a panacea sans some/all of the above, but in concert I did feel it added to my profile.