Rhyme's Guide To What To Expect From Recruiting

Because people generalize too much The truth is that no particular background is "right" for VC. Certainly, business fundamentals are key in any VC, but there is really no reason whatsoever to think that you have a better chance as an engineer (or really for that matter as a finance guy).

VCs are unique in their specialization - and if you happen to have the "right mix" for THAT particular VC firm, you could be an easy hire. You may just as equally be totally boring to the next the VC firm. For instance, take a look at these guys: https://www.archventure.com/ -- they invest almost exclusively in early stage, highly scientific stuff like new chemical polymers, etc. A background in say, chemical engineering, would be directly applicable to this firm. Spend the last 5 years doing strategic investments in plastics with DOW? Congrats, they'll probably want to talk to you.

That however, would be totally useless to a firm like say, Duchoissois - where frankly, knowledge of horses might be more valuable. See: https://www.duch.com. Say instead, your background happens to be in marketing. In that case, a firm like Lake Capital might make sense for you. In other cases, you might just have exactly the right mix for one of their portfolio firms (this is a good way to get in too... join a portfolio firm, do good work, get your name known in the VC circles and then go from there). In other instances, maybe its something else. In one case, I know a guy who thinks he got a job because he happens to know a few rich people and thinks the firm hired him hoping he could bring in a few million in funding. Make no mistake about it though, just because you have the "right" mix, doesn't make you a shoe in.

VC and PE, frankly, is probably 90% networking, 5% what you know and 5% luck. You just gotta beat the ground and get into the club. A good example of this - I met a VC guy in the bahamas a while back, got his card and I called him and he pretty much told me, in no uncertain terms, that I had nothing to offer a VC firm and should just go "work at a hedge fund" since I could make more money anyway. Three months later, I emailed him asking if he knew anything about the firm I had an offer from. He wrote back that he didnt but... maybe there was something at his firm after all, and although they didnt usually hire interns, maybe they could make an exception. How does someone go from telling you that you don't stand a chance to suddenly almost pulling an offer out of a hat over email? The reason is simple: it's all about networking and breaking into the club.

what would you bring to the table ? How can you add value to the job with no exposure to VC industry?

Admittedly probably not that much right off the bat. I'd definately be a developmental project, although I think that worked out very well for the managers who took a chance on me and gave me the chance to prove that I could be a great network engineer.

If I were to be in VC, I would want to work in tech. I love technology. VC is not about the big money to me, as it seems to be for alot people interested in VC. I would work for an average base salary just to get in the door and get a chance to prove myself. Also, I have worked in the mobility area my entire career, so I think I could bring an understanding of that industry. Also, I am very good at understanding technology systems - how systems work together to make a product work. That is part of what has made me a good engineer.

Like I said, that isn't alot to go off of. Really I'd have to get lucky and find someone who would be willing to listen to and (hopefully) believe my reasoning of why I could be a useful member of a VC team.

All the best,
The reason why i asked this Q was to know your strategy to get into VC and how you are gonna differentiate yourself

if Tech is your passion, how about dabbling with a startup? I guess one would get lot of biz experience in a startup than the Fortune 500 job

Because people generalize too much The truth is that no particular background is "right" for VC. Certainly, business fundamentals are key in any VC, but there is really no reason whatsoever to think that you have a better chance as an engineer (or really for that matter as a finance guy).

VCs are unique in their specialization - and if you happen to have the "right mix" for THAT particular VC firm, you could be an easy hire. You may just as equally be totally boring to the next the VC firm. For instance, take a look at these guys: https://www.archventure.com/ -- they invest almost exclusively in early stage, highly scientific stuff like new chemical polymers, etc. A background in say, chemical engineering, would be directly applicable to this firm. Spend the last 5 years doing strategic investments in plastics with DOW? Congrats, they'll probably want to talk to you.

That however, would be totally useless to a firm like say, Duchoissois - where frankly, knowledge of horses might be more valuable. See: https://www.duch.com. Say instead, your background happens to be in marketing. In that case, a firm like Lake Capital might make sense for you. In other cases, you might just have exactly the right mix for one of their portfolio firms (this is a good way to get in too... join a portfolio firm, do good work, get your name known in the VC circles and then go from there). In other instances, maybe its something else. In one case, I know a guy who thinks he got a job because he happens to know a few rich people and thinks the firm hired him hoping he could bring in a few million in funding. Make no mistake about it though, just because you have the "right" mix, doesn't make you a shoe in.

VC and PE, frankly, is probably 90% networking, 5% what you know and 5% luck. You just gotta beat the ground and get into the club. A good example of this - I met a VC guy in the bahamas a while back, got his card and I called him and he pretty much told me, in no uncertain terms, that I had nothing to offer a VC firm and should just go "work at a hedge fund" since I could make more money anyway. Three months later, I emailed him asking if he knew anything about the firm I had an offer from. He wrote back that he didnt but... maybe there was something at his firm after all, and although they didnt usually hire interns, maybe they could make an exception. How does someone go from telling you that you don't stand a chance to suddenly almost pulling an offer out of a hat over email? The reason is simple: it's all about networking and breaking into the club.

I am going to interview for my summer internship with a PE firm which was established in 1994. I also have a summer internship offer from a top notch general mgmt firm for their strategy division. I however am more interested in finance and related stuff.

Now these PE firms are damn secretive with hardly any info in their website. How does one find out more about these firms and how does one evaluate these firms from a career perspective? Any tips? I could find out the team member profiles and the portfolio firms.

The PE firm I am talking off has raised 1.5 B$ in last 14 years and the latest fund is of 500 million $ which it raised 2 years ago to invest in Asian economies.

PS: I am based out of India

I had a somehow different experience due to my own decisions. Pretty stressful, if you ask me, but not necessarily because of a hectic schedule. This was my path (exaggerated a bit here and there for dramatism):

September - October: participate in some career planning workshop and tests. Come out with a strong fit with Entrepreneurship and (to a lesser extent) General Management (GM). Attend some industry specific presentations and strike down most industries from my list.
November: Consulting? IB? Nah, I won't attend those dinners. I should probably do a startup for the summer.
January: (the deadline to apply for interview week interviews): Decide to eliminate the following options: finance whatsoever jobs, consulting in general, healthcare focused companies, tech companies, media companies, jobs in my home region (what would that add to my resume?), positions that are a little too entry level for my pre-MBA experience, companies that do not require at least 2-3 years pre-MBA experience (why would I want to work at a position that could be filled by a 23 year old?), companies that do not sound prestigious enough, etc. I'm basically either "too good" (or too lazy towards the deadline which came in the middle of our winter break) for most positions, so end up applying to around 8-10 jobs: about 50% GM and 50% non-profits.

February: during interview week I was interviewed by about 5 firms, about 1 a day, pretty relaxed schedule (get up early, research, interview, research next day's, relax). That included interviewing with a couple of firms that "spammed" me into interviewing with them despite not having applied. Was interviewed by "dream firm" but did not get an offer. Get a few interviews outside of interview week later in the month.

March: most my friends have more than 1 offer in hand and I'm thinking about "how to rule the world" by getting involved in a startup. Fail to apply to any other jobs while considering startup options.

early April: talk to some people I know (from before B-school) about a startup with which they are involved that can interest me. Look into getting the school's funding for people working at startups or starting their own thing. Figure out that I need to write a business plan to do so, and that spending the summer writing a business plan is not what most people are doing at startups.

late April: talk to coaches, mentors the entrepreneurs at the startup and others and suddenly get cold feet about startups in general and the one I'm about to join in particular. Talk to the startup guys about doing a field study (i.e. research for class credit while school's going on) instead. Start shotgunning e-mails everywhere. Surprisingly, the job bank is still running deep despite it being late in the game.

mid May: school's about to end and I haven't been even invited to interview by anyone. Consider going the startup way (using personal funds for living expenses since the deadline for school's funding has passed and I did not submit anything). I start replying to e-mails from classmates and clubs sending along positions that need to be filled ASAP. Post resume in monster.com...

late May: get invited to two interviews in consecutive days (finally!). Both are strategy positions, both are interesting per se (i.e. they would have been interesting back in February).
One phone interview, one in person (local company).

early June (this week): get offers from both companies. Choose one, decline the other. YAY! I'm all set for the summer.

My learnings from the whole process:

- jobs can be quite hard to get if you have too many limitations in mind. However, I'm yet to meet anyone who has been unable to get an MBA-worthy summer job if they were willing to compromise to some extent.

Talking to some 2nd years, the few people that haven't found full time jobs are, for eg., the few students who are looking to get into a top-20 VC firm full time without much relevant experience and knowing that all those firms combined have only 10 post-MBA open positions. Or the few students who want a specific location, a specific industry and a specific function and aren't willing to compromise on any front. Or the really bad interviewers (those who get a lot of interviews but no offers). At the end of the day, 70% of MBAs change jobs within 2 years of graduation, so why not compromise a bit here and there in exchange for peace of mind? Note that compromising does not mean trading down from your pre-MBA job, it just means accepting something else than your ideal job. Not everyone needs to compromise, but some will have to.

- Brand can help. One of the offers I got was from a company that is relatively unknown to the general public (despite its being a leader in its particular niche) and almost completely unknown to the MBA crowd (aside from a job posting in the job bank), yet they were looking to fill a particular summer position from a couple of ultra elite / elite schools in the region but would not consider candidates from other schools in the area (a NE and a couple of NEF)

- Classmates can help. There's lots of e-mails flowing around with positions that someone gets from their network that get offered around. If you let people know you are still looking for jobs late in the game (this requires putting your ego aside), they can consider you for specific projects they are taking part in (I know of a friend who got an offer this way within 10 days from when his original option blew up).

- Career services never gives up. Quite late in the game (after I filled some poll showing that I was still looking for a job), I started getting personalized e-mails with recent postings and additional access to coaches and so on.

- Professors can help. Several professors are involved with various companies (consulting gigs, board, angel investor, etc.) and if you have a specific interest in a particular company they know, they can help you get an interview.

- Being an international and finding work in the US adds some complexity to the process but is far from being a major hurdle (at least for the summer). If you are an international, you probably need some extra time to get your paperwork in order before your internship and you won't be considered for all positions, but you will be far from limited. Full time may be a different story (don't know yet, but I'll let you know next year!).

Hope it helps.

L.

Also Minority recruiting can be very early in the year. I had friends with internships in October from minority mba career fairs. If you are black/hispanic go to these since if you are at a top school you will almost certainly get an offer from a top company.