I’ve been sitting with this question for a while now, and I think it’s worth digging into because I see a lot of consultants treating their exit to PE like a checkbox exercise rather than a strategic move.
Here’s what I’m wrestling with: I’ve got solid case experience, sold deals to clients, and led some decent client engagements. But when I look at what PE firms actually want—deep deal exposure, modeling hours, operational thinking—I’m not sure how many of my consulting wins actually matter for the interview loop.
I’ve been reading some really honest exit stories from folks who made the jump, and a few things keep popping up. First, it’s not just about having case wins; it’s about being able to translate a consulting project into a tight due diligence narrative. Second, the firms that actually hire ex-consultants seem to care less about prestige and more about whether you can articulate what you learned about an industry or business model. Third, timing seems to matter way more than people admit—there’s a window where your consulting experience is still fresh enough to be relevant but your lack of deal experience becomes the real conversation.
I’m trying to figure out: for those of you who’ve made this transition, which parts of your consulting work actually got called out in PE interviews as relevant, and which parts did they basically ignore? And how did you package your experience to bridge that gap?
The transition hinges on translating your consulting narrative into deal language. What PE firms look for is your ability to think operationally about a business—how costs flow, where margin leakage occurs, what operational improvements drive valuation. Your case wins matter only insofar as they demonstrate this systemic thinking. I’ve seen consultants land PE roles when they could articulate a consulting project as a mini due diligence, complete with an industry thesis and specific value drivers. The modeling hours gap is surmountable through self-study, but the strategic thinking is harder to fake. Focus your interviews on two or three deep dives where you identified and quantified an operational opportunity.
let’s be real—most of your consulting work doesn’t matter at all. pe firms want deal experience, and consulting case wins are basically a proxy for ‘can this person think analytically.’ what actually gets callbacks is when you can point to a specific project, break down the unit economics, and explain how you’d’ve valued it differently if you were deploying capital. most consultants fumble this because they’re still thinking like advisors instead of investors. timing is brutal—too early and you look desperate, too late and they wonder why you didn’t jump sooner.
Research suggests that PE hiring from consulting has matured significantly. Firms now evaluate consultants on two dimensions: analytical rigor (which transfers well) and deal exposure (which doesn’t). Consultants with 2-4 years of experience who’ve worked on projects with quantifiable financial impact—cost reduction, pricing optimization, revenue synergy identification—see higher callback rates. The modeling gap is real: candidates who self-study LBO models before interviews demonstrate commitment. Industry expertise in PE’s target sectors (healthcare, industrials, tech-enabled services) is a meaningful differentiator.
i think the key is being able to tell a story about one deal-like project where u really dug into the numbers. like if u did a cost reduction case, talk about what the ebitda impact was, not just the engagement itself. that’s what pe cares abt—can u think like an investor?
I made the jump about three years ago, and honestly, the project I kept coming back to in interviews wasn’t my biggest case—it was a smaller operational assessment I did for a manufacturing company. I’d dug into their plant efficiency, identified cost takeout opportunities, and built out scenarios for what that meant to their EBITDA. In the PE interview, that story was gold because I could walk them through my thought process as an investor, not just a consultant. The partners kept asking follow-ups, and it became clear they cared about how I thought, not just what I’d done.
You’ve got more transferable skills than you think! Your consulting rigor, client management, and analytical chops are solid foundations. With focused prep on deal thinking and some LBO modeling practice, you’re absolutely positioned to land conversations. The bridge is totally doable!