Deciding to set sail for the world of private equity is not enough to get a role in this industry.The job market remains highly competitive in this area.
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The private equity series is a collection of articles written by Quentin, MMO member who moved from consulting to private equity through Movemeon. We distribute our new content (like this article) on Linkedin. Follow us and never miss out on insight, advice and events. Or you can register to gain access to our weekly newsletter.You can find the others articles of the series here:
Deciding to set sail for the world of private equity (‘PE’) is unfortunately not enough to get a role in this industry. The job market remains highly competitive in this area and, as for any investment. A PE firm will only hire someone if it believes the value the new member adds is (much) greater than its cost. As a strategy consultant, there are nonetheless a handful of clear windows of opportunity where your experience and your skill set make you a ‘good bargain’.
In a nutshell, the role you aspire to will be the key driver of your timing. To summarise, there are three main paths you can follow:
Conversely, you can identify periods of your consulting career when a transition to PE will be sub-optimal, if not impossible. Most notably, an experienced consultant on the verge to being promoted to Project Leader suffers from the worst of two worlds: too experienced (with the wrong kind of experience) and too expensive to become a deal professional but not proven enough to manage people and projects as part of an operations team. This general framework should not occult the fact that each PE firm has its own idiosyncrasies and that the best way to prepare for a transition to this industry is to meet as many people as possible within the environment you target – refer to my first post to narrow down your search. In any case, the sooner you start this process, the higher your chances will be.
We regularly publish up-to-date articles to keep you up-to-date on the market and our work.
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