College—> Cushy PE Job Pipeline
It’s my first post on here, but I thought there may be some ppl with interesting insights on this.
I’m currently interning at a small PE shop. I love the team, the office culture, and the work. The office is extremely relaxed - analysts/associates work less than 50 hours many weeks, and there’s no expectation to work long hours to “prove yourself” to seniors (I’m personally capped at 40 hours/week) If you get your work done, nobody cares how long you’re in the office, which seems to be a rare find in high finance. The managers value culture fit more than technical skills when hiring, which makes for an awesome group of people. At the same time, I believe pay to be pretty competitive and performance to be strong. In sum, it’s a cushy place to work, and I’m very fortunate to be in this position.
You might be asking what the problem is. While I haven’t gotten confirmation of a return offer yet, I think they’re happy with my performance and I have an outside chance at a return offer. If they asked me back, I’d 100% be inclined to accept. My only concern is that I’m potentially skipping an important step in the finance career - grinding your teeth. From a technical perspective, I’m not where I need to be to have success as an analyst in PE. My past internship experience is in a different industry, and I’ve gotten less-than-expected modeling experience thus far. My managers know that my technical skills aren’t great, and they don’t seem concerned about it - they’ve hired people in the past with minimal technical background. Sure, they would undoubtedly train me if they hired me FT, but I know that it would take years to build the technical skills of an analyst in IB if I stayed at this PE shop. That worries me a bit - If I were to lose this job and have to lateral to another job in a year or two, would I be qualified at other firms?
Curious about any perspectives on this. Seems like the obvious choice to take the FT offer (if I’m fortunate enough to get it), but I do have my worries. Do I follow the norm and seek out a place where I’ll be thrown into the fire and sharpen my skills as much as possible? Or take the cushy job where I’ll be happy and learn at a much slower pace? I appreciate any insight!
I should first applaud you for engaging in a supremely thoughtful approach towards envisioning the career you seek to build. This line of thinking will take you far.
I am a few months from leaving my IB stint after two years at a solid BB. Like you, I had interned at a smaller and WLB balanced fund while in college. The only finance relevant experience I had was a biz dev internship before that which was really relevant in the end lol. I chose to recruit for IB in the end even after being told there was full time potential for me at that fund because of the same worries you spoke on.
I agonized about that decision a good amount while grinding especially over the last year when M&A activity has picked up. But I can say that it would have been a long time before I was anywhere near as technically skilled as I am now if I stayed at that fund as an analyst. Even if everyone around you is super nice and speaks to how great the culture is the calculus you take as a junior professional vs someone more senior is different. All college kids need reps and IB for all its woes gives you that exactly.
I would also ask around to see if you have upwards mobility for promotions and see what the exits are like for those who leave. An analyst who gets promoted to associate but lacks a lot of skills they would get in structured training is going to have a rough go at lateral recruiting even if they already are in private equity. That is not to say this fund is not a good one as I do not have a lot of details to make that assessment like track record, AUM, investment type, sourcing vs execution focus for juniors, partner pedigree, and so on.
I really appreciate your perspective. I should maybe have added that I’ve made the decision to avoid IB at all costs. I respect and, in many ways, am jealous of those who can tough it out, but I don’t think I could do it. If I don’t end up at my current shop I’ll be going into RE. It’s where I’m most comfortable and have past internship experience. I enjoy RE, so I’m willing to end up at a sweaty-ish shop (as sweaty as RE can get lol). This brings up another area of concern. If I end up as an analyst in RE, I’ll get decent technical experience, but it could be slightly confining to the RE industry. On the other hand, my current shop is highly diversified, and, as such, I’m getting an extremely wide learning experience in various niche verticals. So, from a career progression and potential-for-a lateral perspective, these are two very different options. I guess the answer to this dilemma lies in where I see myself in 10-20+ years. I don’t think I can answer that for sure, but I do really enjoy the culture and focus of where I’m at now, and could see myself working at a similar type of place down the road.
Sorry for the long message - thank you for the advice!
Understandable and glad you yourself can admit what works and does not for you.
If that is the case and you enjoy your fund, then by all means, welcome the opportunity. If you still feel uncertainty come the summer's conclusion, consulting is also another option that preserves the path to private equity and a host of other roles perhaps even more than IB and with better hours. I have several friends that did the MBB to PE route and are landing at firms they have enjoyed their time at.
Might I ask, is this firm you are currently interning at RE focused? Or is it more centered around something like tech? I ask as unless it is a fully generalist shop and very industry agnostic, then you may limit your optionality if these "niche verticals" you speak of are within a more siloed industry.
I have a slightly different take than above for what it’s worth —
The world is full of “oh if I do x WHAT ABOUT Y”. The world is an uncertain place. Say you get those IB chops — there’s no gurantee you’d end up at a place where you vibe at as much as you do with this place . Plus if the culture really is that good, hopefully you’d be able to get the mentorship and apprenticeship you’re looking for if you put up your hand and grind enthusiastically at your spot.
I mean look man— you wrote a few paragraphs here on how much you love this place. Go with your heat here.
I appreciate it. When I take a step back and look at the position I’m in, I totally agree with your take. Would be really tough to pass up this opportunity.
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