Question from an MBA applicant with a construction management background targeting MC/PE

Ahhhhh, gotta love weekends, right? And, from what I hear, this weekend is a big one in Chicago because of the St. Patrick’s Day celebrations that seem to be an institution here. There’s going to be a huge parade here later today and, at some point, the city will put die into the river that cuts through downtown and turn it green…that’s right, the river will be green! Unfortunately, I might miss a lot of the festivities because I’ll be helping a friend move into a new apartment, but I hope to at least be able to see the river looking like something out of the “Ghostbusters” movie later on today. This is such an interesting city.

The email below is from an MBA applicant with a real estate and construction background who is targeting Consulting and Private Equity as post-MBA career options. As you may know, these are two industries that are hurting right now, but, by the time this reader graduates, I believe the economy will have recovered and these industries will make a similar recovery. So, this timing on this might be perfect since he wouldn’t be graduating until 2011. As an aside, one thing I LOVE about this email is that the guy wrote a very short message essentially asking 1-2 questions. I swear I’ve been calling for this sort of thing for months now and I feel like it’s just getting through. Because of his short email, I was able to knock out this response quickly…word to the wise on this one, folks…

——-
LD wrote:

“Hi,
I read your blog on a regular basis but I would be delighted if you can help me with the following questions:

1. I have a BE in EE and 4 years of work experience in construction project management and real estate development. I would like to change my career to PE or MC. any suggestions? I am applying to H/W/CBS fulltime mba programs. how do PE or MC firms view someone with my background?
looking forward to hearing from you.
thanks.”

——-
My response:

LD,

I hope this finds you doing well. Thanks for looking to me as an advisor and I apologize for taking so long to write you back. I’m sure you can imagine the volume of emails that I receive. Also, I am thankful that you emailed me with a single question. That’ll make it MUCH easier for me to knock out a response to you in a relatively straightforward manner. Because of my delay in responding, you may know where you’ll be heading in the Fall by now, but, if you don’t, I wish you the best of luck with the applications that you’ve got outstanding. It may seem tough because so many people are applying this year, but you seem to have a good background so I’m sure you’ll get in somewhere if you structured your essays well.

OK, let’s dive into your question…what would I recommend to you for making a post-MBA move into Consulting or PE? I’m going to break this into two parts because I’d say that your profile fits differently for the two industries that interest you. Let’s start with Consulting. Based on what you’ve told me, your background could be attractive to the Consulting firms. You earned an undergrad degree in a very tough discipline, have experience in leading people, and have good problem solving experience (in my opinion, construction management is important problem solving because your projects can have real life and death implications for occupants). Your background is definitely non-traditional and it may take some work to position yourself for success, but I think you have a legit shot at making this happen. For now, you might want to start restructuring your resume to call out your people leadership, problem solving, teamwork, and analytic skills to catch the attention of the Consulting firms. Also, it wouldn’t hurt for you to start networking and reaching out to folks at the firms that interest you to place yourself on their radar screens. Finally, I’d recommend that you buy a case-prep book and start building up your consulting case interview game. Since you’ve acknowledged your interest early on, it makes sense for you to do this now to improve your chances once your summer MBA internship interviews start in January.

Moving into Private Equity might be a little more difficult, especially considering the struggles that the industry is facing at the moment. To make this easier, let’s just assume that all will be good in the PE world by the time you graduate and there will be plenty of jobs available by then. For what I’m about to say, I’m going to assume that you’re interested in leveraged buyouts (not venture capital, growth equity, or one of the other flavors of PE) and that you want to be on the deal-side (not the operations-side). One potential weakness is that you don’t have a Finance background or, at least, what you’ve told me in your email doesn’t indicate that you do. Sure, you’re an Engineer with four years of management experience, but, from what I’ve heard, many PE firms are checking for people who have done the traditional “banking”-type of financial analysis before. And, with so many former investment bankers on the market, you’re going to have an uphill battle ahead of you. If you still want to do PE, I suggest that you work as hard as you can to get a summer internship at an LBO shop and just KILL it to get a full-time offer. If you don’t secure a summer internship in PE, my suggestion would be to try like hell to get an internship either at a top-tier Consulting firm or in Finance to get the “pop” on your resume to catch the PE firms’ attention. Then, you’ll want to get smart on the industry by studying topics like types of PE, company valuations, financial analytics (esp. LBO models), and industry/company analysis and leveraging your B-school network to get an “in” with your target firms. From there, if you’re able to secure an interview, you’ll just have to knock their socks off. You might find the following helpful…My friend John G. is a Columbia MBA grad who works for a Venture Capital firm in NYC and he’s running a blog that might be helpful to you. In particular, he made a post with a collection of fantastic tips on how to transition into VC. You can check out that post at http://johngannonblog.com/vc-careers/. Granted, what he’s written is about VC, which is a subset of PE, you may still find his advice useful as you think through what to do when you get to B-school.

I hope you’ve found the above helpful, even if it might not be the specific roadmap that you were seeking. Again, good luck on your business school applications. Given, the kind of career switch you desire, I am sure that you’ll get a lot out of the MBA experience. Take care.

-Marquis