VC/PE to Equity Research research, valuation, particular, experience, like

ikoreaii

Wanted to get the take from someone on the inside about this...

I've been trying to break into buy side equity research for some time now (hence CFA). Unfortunately this has been an uphill battle. Seems like my experience (valuation) fits more to a PE/VC type gig. I've considered starting to look at this as a stepping stone to public equity.

Any thoughts on the transferability of skills from PE/VC due diligence to a public equity setting? In particular VC as that seems like the place where the most opportunities are available to me right now.

SkipE99

you'll be taking a significant paycut to start off as a junior associate on the sell side. PE/VC to buy side equity analyst happens a lot. Have you tried glocap?

CFA4Techie

Not specifically Glocap (they don't have an office in my area) but other recruiters, yes. They all seem to push me towards VC/PE - like I said due to my experience with valuation - or into investment operations at buy side firms (since I have a CPA seem to be typecast as a reporting/ops person).

VC/PE sounds infinitely more exciting to me than investment ops, but I do think long term I want to be in the buy side public equity space. Good to hear that it happens frequently.

justin88

so essentially you are trying to transition from accounting to the investment side? The only way to do this is through networking or top 10 business school.

joehogue

don't expect a cost of living adjustment anywhere including NYC. If you make 100k in Los Angeles, expect 100k in NYC, unless you are transitioning to a more senior position or a different department. It's not the good old golden rule days anymore.

firat

pawn Wrote:
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> so essentially you are trying to transition from
> accounting to the investment side? The only way to
> do this is through networking or top 10 business
> school.

Agreed. It's not because you can't necessarily excel in a stock-picking role; it's just that there's less of a need for your skills in public equities, simply because companies are so limited in what they disclose. People look at your resume and think you're good with fishing through a litany of numbers...perfect for PE and VC valuation jobs because these companies (especially PE) have access to investment opportunities where there is no shortage of spreadsheets or documents containing numbers that you have to figure out whether they're legit or fake.

Iginla2011

Numi - I appreciate your insight, a perspective I've never thought of before. I always look at public equity job descriptions that say they want experience in financial modeling, etc. which I have experience with. But your point stands, it makes sense to me why PE/VC might be a better next step for me.

I guess I should consider myself lucky, there could be a lot worse things than PE/VC haha.

grharmeyer

Yeah, just remember that if PE/VC are your long-term goals and you specifically want to get in on the investing side, you might want to make that clear in your interviews. Sometimes these firms only hire for accounting/finance/due diligence roles internally, in which case you'll be doing what's really considered middle-office at those types of firms (rather than investing / transacting).

Hope that helps...again this is just one person's perspective but I've worked in sell-side research, private equity, and hedge funds before so that's my frame of reference.

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