Private Equity is an increasingly popular post-MBA career goal… but it’s increasingly difficult to land.

We sat down with a career director at an M7 business school to discuss what's happening in PE recruiting, CXO programs, and entrepreneurship through acquisition (ETA).

If you’re interested in any of these options following your MBA, take note of some of today’s recruiting realities.

“Upper-middle-market firms might hire five MBAs a year,” our career director explains. “Middle-market firms might hire one every two years. Lower middle market firms might hire one every three years.”

These aren't hypotheticals…. They’re actual hiring patterns across private equity.

At this M7 program alone, hundreds of students express interest in private equity, but only a small fraction – typically around a dozen students per year – end up landing PE roles.

The disconnect isn't about the quality of the students… it’s just the market reality

For candidates targeting funds like Blackstone, KKR, or Apollo, the odds are worse.

“Even with private equity experience, it's almost impossible to make it to a mega fund,” the career director notes. “Mega funds have little MBA hiring demand because they hire undergraduates straight out of banking, keep them and train them, or send them to business school and pay for it.”

So, if you weren't hired as an analyst at a mega fund or sponsored by one for your MBA education, you're probably not getting hired at the post-MBA level.

This doesn't mean PE is impossible… it just means you need to adjust your target list.

When asked if students should take a banking job post-MBA to position for PE, the answer was quite firm: “While students could get a banking job that might lead to private equity, the odds are small.”

Why is this the case? “The marketplace becomes crowded at the Vice President level, where they would want to exit into, and people don't move much at that level unless they start their own fund. Generally, you either get into private equity right after business school or you probably won't.”

Corporate exec opportunities – where PE funds place MBA graduates into operating roles at portfolio companies – have become “one of our most popular areas of interest.”

Alpine Investors runs the most well-known program, and they also set the standard for selectivity: “Alpine is the McKinsey or Goldman Sachs of CXO programs.”

“They hire only 12 MBAs globally per year and get 200 applications just from our program,” the career director notes. “Of the 12 hires last year, 16 of our students were invited to interview… and all but one had an Ivy Plus undergrad or military service academy background.” The exception was a chief of staff at a high-growth startup.

Other programs like Shore Capital “hire less frequently, generally not annually.” The opportunities are scarce, selective, and don't have summer internships.

How can students get relevant summer experience? “Go find a garage door manufacturer in Wisconsin and work there for the summer… because that's the type of company you'll end up working at.”

Entrepreneurship through acquisition (ETA) – buying and operating a small business – attracts about 100 students at this MBA program, but only about a dozen actually do it.

What’s going on here? “The reality is convincing someone who's retiring to sell their business. Until you find the company, it's sales combined with market research. The key to success is making hundreds of phone calls every single day.”

Students discover this over two years of ETA-focused programming and eventually realize that “two or three steps down the road, this is something I'm going to do” … rather than immediately post-MBA.

Economics also factor in, because lower-middle market PE funds have entered the ETA space, making it “very hard for individual searchers to find companies that haven't already been scooped up.” When individual searchers do find opportunities, they're often “laundromats or vending machine distributors – the smallest possible companies.”

For students with loans to repay, the risk and returns for these types of businesses don’t usually work.

If you're considering an MBA primarily to break into private equity, CXO programs, or ETA, understand what you’re getting into:

You need the right pre-MBA background. Banking with deal experience, consulting with PE diligence work, or existing PE experience give you a shot at PE. Being an English teacher at Teach for America probably doesn't.

You need realistic expectations about fund size. Forget about the mega funds unless you were already in their analyst programs. Focus on middle market and upper-middle market firms.

You need geographic flexibility. Competition in New York is brutal, but much less so in smaller markets like Kansas City.

You need high risk tolerance. You might spend your entire first year – or both years – job searching. Many students aren't willing to take that risk with big loans.

You need to understand the math. When 200 students from one school apply to Alpine and only 12 get hired globally, the odds aren’t in your favor. When 100 students express an interest in ETA and only about a dozen actually do it, that tells you something.

An MBA still builds a critical skillset, network, and opens the door to new opportunities… but it’s not a blank check to pivot into these very competitive industries. So, understanding what’s doable versus what’s not can help you get on the right track from the start.

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