How to exit from Continental Europe IB to London PE?
I will join the coverage team of a BB this summer in one of the larger European cities. Within its region, this bank is consistently in Top-1/2 in the M&A tables, and people have had good regional exits (CVC/EQT/Permira).
I have never attempted to apply for BB entry-level opportunities in London before as I genuinely wanted to live and work in this city. However, I moved to London to do a ”non-convertable” internship at a European UMM (after I had accepted the BB offer) after my graduation last year and have really enjoyed the city. Also met someone that I really like. My social life has also improved considerably, and I really dont want to move back. I realized this too late…
My long-term goal is to work in PE, and I hope to leave as soon as possible.
If my goal is to transition to a MF/UMM PE firm in London within the coming ~4 yrs., what should I ideally do?
-
Request to transfer to one of the sector teams in the London office?
-
Try to exit to a MF/UMM PE office in my city, and then try to transfer after a few years?
-
Shoot my shot and try to do London PE recruiting based in my city, or will I not be considered at all by HHs? I have been in touch with some of the London HHs and have also participated in the recruiting for some of the PE Analyst programs over the last year, but did not manage to get any offers. They have my details but Im wondering if they will simply ignore me once I start my FT job
Thanks a lot for your help
Bump, anyone?
Frankfurt? Will PM you
There is just one strategy above which works effectively and it is #1. Don't do #2, you will end up stuck in that place for a while / ever.
I would recommend recruiting laterally to another bank after 1 year to London. If London is your end-goal you need to get yourself to London asap. Don't try and rotate internally at your firm, this happens less frequent than you expect.
It's a tough one. I see that you write that you've met someone, and that is part of the reason why you want to move. However, unless you're transferring now, you're likely looking at a long timeline.
Your best alternative would be to do an internal transfer within the bank you are with now, and start the regular PE recruiting once you're in London. This is by far your best shot to move.
If you can't do that, you could try the MF route, with a potential internal transfer. To be honest, I think the UMM funds could have issues with the internal transfer as they rarely staff large deal teams at regional offices. This means that it takes a bit of planning and effort to actually make the move on their end. You'd also have to build some goodwill and experience with the team before requesting it; The drawback is obviously that if your firm is not up for it, you would already be 4 years into your career without getting any closer to London.
I think recruiting for London PE roles is a longshot. If you can't do an internal transfer, then go for it, but imo there are too many roadblocks in your situation for anyone to actually give you a thorough look unless your CV is spectacular. Competition for PE roles is tough, and the fact that you need Visa sponsorship makes it harder for HH to vouch and pitch you to clients, as opposed to someone who already has an existing sponsorship (or does not need one). It would also be tough for you to make interviews as you'd have to fly in for everything, which in turn could put you in a weird spot with your BB "back home". As an employer, and let's say you opted to cover flights yourself, I'd still have a higher barrier to bring you into the office if I knew that you're flying in, rather than bike/tube to see me.
Wish you the best of luck!
I work in Paris and consistently get inbounds from HH for MF roles in London (Advent, CVC, Cinven, EQT, HIG... you name it). I don't know in which city you are based but this shouldn't be a problem
Yes, this is true for French speakers. If you are considering this from Paris, you can start there in banking and you will easily be able to recruit for London.
The commute, even for daily interviews is reasonable and, since Brexit has been enforced and banks have strengthen their presence in Continental Europe, there is a lack of French speakers in London (when compared to German and Italian speakers) vs. the demand which has been forcing London based firms to recruit directly from Paris.
If you are in Frankfurt, Milan, Madrid, Nordics, you should either lateral to a bank in London or move within your own firm, and then recruit in London. This is a relatively common path which many have done.
Not sure I agree with the other comments. (Edit: agreed with the other two comments on French speakers but it also is true for Italian / German / Dutch / Spanish speakers and more and more for the Nordics as well)
Based on my experience, very similar to yours, it is not a longshot at all to be considered by headhunters for PE roles in London if you are in IB in Continental Europe. I started in an Elite Boutique on the continent and when I decided to lateral to PE after 3 years (when I made Associate in my bank), more than half of the processes I did where London based.
Tons of shops in London are looking for Europeans to join their coverage as the need the language. In my case, I ended up moving from "one of the larger European cities" to London because I spoke the particular language they needed in the team. To be honest, I even believe that if your English is proficient, you could even join an "European coverage" team in any fund, including MF / UMM.
My advice would be to do your time in banking (at the very least 2 years I would say), get some deal experience and then leverage your brand name / said experience to reach out to headhunters and let them know you are now in the market for PE. I have recently moved back to my "one of the larger European cities" and the proposals (for PE / HF) from headhunters keep on flowing.
Let me know if I maybe misunderstood your question or mis-answered it but it really seems possible for a guy in your situation to end up enjoying the London life (which I agree with you is awesome!).
Yes, this is a fair comment. The reality is that strategy #1 and strategy #3 can coexist. I started in Continental Europe. Of the 3 analysts there that wanted to move to PE in London, 2 of them (incl. me) did it by moving with that bank first to London and then recruit there and the third did it directly from Continental Europe into London. However, when I was there, I did receive some inbounds from London based places, but just not with the flow that my peers in London were getting. I was just receiving very specific inbounds for teams looking for my language, rather than inbounds from funds that were looking for Top BB analysts.
There are examples also of people that started in Continental Europe with a large PE and then moved to London within that firm (e.g. EQT), but it is not the common path. I guess what I am trying to say is that there are multiple alternatives, but the optimal one would be being an Analyst 2 or Analyst 3 in London, as this would give you most of the flow in terms of opportunities. However, also recruiting from Continental Europe into London directly is feasible (and frankly there are examples of Europeans who did recruit for London from New York and San Francisco) and then also moving within the same fund is doable (although this is the most rare case).
Good luck.
Are you in Germany? Any chance I can PM?
Not in Germany but happy to take your questions via PM!
Hi - thought I could provide some colour here. I was in the same situation as you where I started in a continental European office of one of the top 3 BBs. From my office, a lot of people have been recruiting for London PE directly from this continental office. I also managed to do the jump (pretty easily I must say). I also did the jump in less than 2 years compared to what other people have been mentioning and most of the people that I know quit for PE roles were in their second analyst year with some others at the very beginning of associate stint (right after bonus).
Few tips I think helped a lot increase my visibility:
- on LinkedIn, I did not add the location of my role and my profile was still set as « London, UK » (under the line that describes you) given most of my previous experiences were in London
- I proactively reached out to HH and built solid relationship with most of them (at least 1 in each major firm): i did the effort to meet them for coffee in London, was helping them on some of their searches by recommending people / introducing them to fellow colleagues etc.
- I knew exactly what I wanted and therefore they were able to present me with relevant roles they had
- 1-2 times a year I was trying to go to some networking event in London by taking 1 day of holiday flying in night before or morning and flying back before office hours the following day
- I made an effort to network with funds by cold messaging on LinkedIn or getting intros just for « I want to learn calls » rather than « hire me calls » which allowed me to expand my network in funds - helps especially if there are some people who did the move from the same city as you or are the same citizenship
- I went to recruiting events in the city I was working in but was networking to then be introduced to the london team (most of the times they also had london team members present)
- for interviews, most firms will accommodate and pay you hotel/flights if in person and will accommodate on days/weekends, most of the other funds my friends recruited at were agreeing on doing the first rounds online and only more advanced in person, the fund that recruited me in the end met me directly in the city I was based on during some of their business trips
- it is very important to have good motivations for PE and for the UK and both should be kind of separate i.e. do not make it sound like you only care about the UK
Overall, the most important points that played I believe were 1) my location on LinkedIn (dumb but headhunter use the search function like everyone) and 2) being proactive with reaching out to HH and building strong relationships with them. All the rest was some ++ but didn’t yield as many benefits.
Agreed this is probably the most important part. In my personal case it was this (very) proactive strategy that allowed me first to move from Europe to London and then back from London to Europe. There are a lot of HH firms that cover a lot of funds. Sometimes they just get you 1 opportunity but it's the right one and sometimes they cover a vast portion of the market so they will get you in several processes if they fail for you. Will supplement the comment and insist on reaching out to them on LinkedIn, getting your CV out to them and answering their inbounds even if it is to decline an opportunity. The very large majority of them will offer one-on-one calls to get to know you and introduce their firm.
Good luck for the years in IB and subsequent search!
Non velit adipisci corporis. Corrupti delectus adipisci id praesentium optio sed aut. Dolore commodi illum quia eaque aut reprehenderit. Corrupti cumque expedita ad in est. Totam unde velit et qui.
Ex adipisci autem aut dolor dolores commodi. Enim et omnis vitae accusantium est. Esse quo nemo beatae quisquam culpa sint. Repellendus reprehenderit assumenda quia minus eaque quod aut. Quia eaque consequuntur sed sint. Quia repellat qui maxime laudantium amet. Rerum ab velit dolorem fugiat blanditiis.
Omnis et aut non veritatis explicabo neque impedit cum. Omnis aut velit voluptatem ad non. Dignissimos accusantium earum dolore quasi non ipsa eos a.
Voluptate laudantium numquam possimus aut vitae consequatur dicta. Eum iusto reprehenderit possimus cumque non. Est ut modi animi vel sed.
See All Comments - 100% Free
WSO depends on everyone being able to pitch in when they know something. Unlock with your email and get bonus: 6 financial modeling lessons free ($199 value)
or Unlock with your social account...