PE Associate: Feel trapped, advice on where to move from here
Like a lot of you guys, I was never sure about finance in college. I went to a top 10 school where recruiting was relatively easy, and broke into IB. I figured that it would set me up well for non-finance exits after IB, but with everyone else recruiting for PE in my group, I felt like I had to as well. So I managed to break into one of the top Chicago PE firms (GTCR, MDP) where I have been working hours that aren't unbearable, but enough hours where I have no life. A lot of people at my shop are either staying or moving to HF, but I really don't think either of those are right for me. Does anyone have advice?
Reach out to guys you find on LinkedIn who did pe and then moved into non finance roles - they may be able to provide some context on their decision making and they may be hiring (and paying a premium for) ex pe associates.
Believe it or not the world is your oyster and the analytical / critical thinking skillset you built in PE is applicable to almost anything.
Good post pe corporate (not startup) roles pay $175-225K and are 9-5 and many are wfh. Have a high standard for what job you’ll take next and know your worth.
Thanks for the advice, man. I do wonder if most of those post-PE jobs only become available post mba where you form a network of people outside finance. Do you think an MBA might be the right move?
I would really advise against getting an MBA unless you want to pivot out of anything finance related (eg: pivoting to product management, marketing, HR).
You are 100% qualified and an attractive candidate for strategic finance, fp&a, corp dev, corporate strategy (highly recommend if you’ve come to hate excel lol), bizops, and pretty much any other “analytical” job that requires knowledge of finance / strategy / deals. I wouldn’t get too neurotic or fearful on what specific job you’re applying for - once you get a foot in the door (particularly at f500 corporates) you can very realistically move around. You can reasonably go from fp&a to corp strategy once people in those teams hear about your background. Once you’re also sleeping 8 hours a night and not working in a toxic environment and recovered from burnout it is also a lot easier to think about what kind of roles would be fun careers (because these jobs are actually sustainable and not completely destructive to your health and personal life).
A lot of guys I know who went the mba route post PE who hoped to leave finance afterwards ended up back in PE. It’s extremely hard to justify paying $250K for a degree only to earn less money and have a less “prestigious” career.
You do have to do the work though and actually network and apply to a lot of different types of jobs to find a high quality exit. You also have to be thoughtful about how you frame and explain the work you’re doing in PE to fit into the scope of the roles you are applying for.
+1
I did not do an MBA and was able to transition into a {strategy / operations / strategic finance / corp finance / corp dev} type role at a top-tier tech startup after doing {infra / industrial / real estate} PE for a few years
Comp is $200-250K + equity + good hours, and has opened a lot of opportunities like VP finance at early-stage startups, director roles at big tech, tech investing, etc
Is MDP's hours really bad
Yes.
rubiomn9 I think this guy is you
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