I wanted to know if it’d be possible to move into PE/VC/HF from consulting post an MBA. Assuming that the only experience you have is consulting and then you do the MBA.
Hi there! I have pivoted into a venture capital/fund-of-funds investment role after a stint at a management consulting boutique post-MBA. Location is US so only speaking for the US. VC recruiting used to be a lot more unstructured in both style and time-line as compared to consulting, but nowadays you see consulting (along with finance and entrepreneurship) being one of the core pre-requisites into a VC career, although these pre-req might not be equally weighted. I have seen a fair number of consulting folks joining venture capital or the mid/front office of a PE shop. The skillsets you develop from management consulting is definitely one of things that VCs look for. Similar to consulting, networking plays a HUGE role in VC recruiting. Happy to chat more offline if you have other questions.
Hi,
Yes this is possible.
I was from a T2, and I knew someone from there who went to H/S/W and then a bulge for M&A.
Hi there,
Yes, it is possible. Many people have done it, especially from MBB.
Most have focused their time in consulting on PE topics and clients.
You can also check for yourself by filtering LinkedIn based on previous and current employers. This gives you a great insight into possible career trajectories.
Cheers,
Florian
Expert case by
My path is MBA > consulting > VC/FoF investment; I know a person in my MBA class where he did management consulting > MBA > an internship in a corporate > corporate venture capital (CVC).
VC is a highly network-based industry. There are a few ways to differentiate, and where you source your deals/what kind of founders are in your network is one of them. While global banks/global consulting shops allow folks to move to different geo/offices, it is more rare in VC, because (1) the VCs with the scale of a global institution e.g., Goldman who have the structure and standard in place to move folks around are rare and (2) VC is a highly network driven business, which means that if you move to a different geo, the network needs to be built from the ground up (unless it's somewhere you have lived/worked previously so building network is not from scratch). That said, VC is also a highly mobile industry, meaning you could co-invest with other funds/network with anyone globally without limit. I have seen folks who grew up in multiple cultures move across different geos (e.g., British Americans investing in both USA and the UK and so they live in both places).