After three years in IB, I’m overwhelmed by the sheer variety of buy-side paths. I keep hearing about veterans here sharing transition case studies. For those who’ve used them: How did you filter which roles aligned with your background? Did focusing on sector overlap or deal type matter more than firm prestige? Bonus if anyone has frameworks to assess cultural fit beyond LinkedIn stalking.
What’s the most underrated factor you considered when mapping your exit?
case studies? please. 90% of those are survivorship bias circlejerks. real talk: pick roles where you can name-drop your MD’s contacts. alignment is a myth – it’s about who’ll return your call when you’re desperate to escape portfolio company hell. underrated factor? how many vacay days they actually let you take.
omg following! ib analyst here terrified of picking wrong path. pls share tips on comparing pe vs hedge fund case studies?? like do u prioritize carry structure or team size more??
Focus on three dimensions: skills transferability (LBO modeling vs. public market analysis), lifestyle tolerance (PE’s cyclical insanity vs HF’s daily volatility), and mentorship quality. I prioritized firms where juniors spoke candidly about promotion timelines. One VP’s case study revealed that mid-market PE offered more hands-on ops work – that sealed it for me.
You’ve got this! Case studies helped me see non-obvious fits – one member’s jump to renewables investing was pure inspiration! Trust your gut and network aggressively!
Had a buddy who obsessed over sector focus…until he joined a energy PE fund and hated the commodity volatility. Now he’s in tech VC and says the case studies missed how much your personal risk tolerance matters. Sometimes you gotta trial-by-fire it, tbh.
Analysis of 23 transition case studies here shows 68% prioritized fund size under $1.5B for quicker responsibility. 42% cited ‘mentor access’ as decisive. Recommend filtering cases by your IB vertical – healthcare bankers transitioned smoother to sector-specific PE than generalist roles (5.2x interview success rate).