Venture Capital (VC) and Private Equity (PE) jobs, much sought after by MBA graduates, are difficult to come by, with recruiters choosy about the quality of recruits and even the pedigree of the business schools.
Thus, if you want to break into this charmed circle, you have to prepare much in advance and develop a strategy.
Apart from expertise in finance and accounting, you need exposure to multiple business disciplines. A thorough knowledge of business operations and strategy principles would be an added advantage.
Venture Capital is an investing speciality in which you have to identify and buy stocks in startups that have the potential to become highly profitable. Private Equity involves taking over existing firms and making them into profitable ventures through financial engineering, organizational restructuring, adjustments in strategy and maximizing the efficiency of business operations.
But how will you maximise your chances in catching the recruiters’ eye? First and foremost, try to get admission in one of the top-ranked b-schools that have a good placement record in VC & PE, says U.S. News.
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It would also be worthwhile to check on enhancing networking opportunities at schools frequented by partners or heads of VC and PE firms as guest lecturers or speakers at conferences. Some of the schools also have key relationships with such firms for student internships or job placements, says Dileep Rao, a former venture capitalist and a clinical professor at Florida International University.
You should carefully check the placement record of the target schools in these two fields. You could also get in touch with the alumni working in VC or PE firms and seek information on how far the school had helped them find employment. Information could also be sought if there were on-campus interviews and if the courses at school prepared them well for such roles, U.S.News quoted HBX executive director Patrick Mullane, as saying.
Apart from expertise in finance and accounting, you need exposure to multiple business disciplines. A thorough knowledge of business operations and strategy principles would be an added advantage.
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The influence of technology cannot also be discounted since much of your work in future would be with startups that calls for disruptive skills that come into play even while attempting company turnarounds.
You could also use the MBA to develop expertise in a field and learn new skills such as entrepreneurship. Some of the schools like Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management lays special stress on growth and scaling track of existing companies that confer real value instead of just concentrating on launching new ventures.