Wednesday, March 12 - "What's The Path Into Private Equity?"

Happy Wednesday!

Here’s what’s on the job description for today:

1. New roles from a big player in the driver as a service industry.

2. Today’s Question: “I’d like to work in Private Equity but am getting no interviews. What can I do in the next few years to enter that field?”

IN HIRING

Lyft

• The company you go to when Uber is unavailable or too expensive is hiring for a ton of roles at the moment.

• Currently, most of their roles in are in North America with plenty of roles across departments and cities.

• Here are a few of the most interesting roles available

  • Sr. Technical Program Manager - Click here for full details

  • Data Analyst, Loyalty & Partnership - Click here for full details

  • Group Product Manager - Click here for full details

Click here for the company’s career page

TODAY’S QUESTION

Today’s Question: “I’d like to work in Private Equity but am getting no interviews. What can I do in the next few years to enter that field?”

Recommendation: the issue with PE is that it’s super interesting and pays well, which means everyone wants there are many people who wish to enter the field. Here’s what I’d do to enter:

• First, figure out if you want to be part of the investment team or other business functions.

  • The most competitive are the investment team positions where you perform due diligence and help the firm make investment decisions.

  • The second is part of the performance improvement or portfolio management team where you help companies that are purchased improve and grow.

  • Outside of that, there are roles in HR, sales, investor relations, and everything else.

• Second, validate how good of a fit you are. This is true for many competitive areas.

  • Rather than spend 3 months trying to figure out if you can get interviews, network for 2-3 weeks and ask people who have those roles if you’re a good fit.

• Finally, if you’re truly serious about entering the field, here three ways to do it:

  1. If you’re a good fit, have investment banking or other relevant experience: Find the search firms and head hunters who run the hiring for specific locations.

  2. If you’re not a clear fit but want to get into it now: find the smallest startup or group of partners that you can do free work, an internship to both gain experience and hopefully land a longer term contract.

  3. You’re not a fit but can’t work for peanuts at the moment: ask the people you network who they hire, find people on LinkedIn and see what they’re role was before getting hired and begin to set a 3-5 year path into PE.

Conclusion:

This is a competitive industry and your path in depends on what you want to do, your past experience, and the timeline you’re willing to give yourself.