*gasp* I'm actually going to agree with terp06 on that. No harm of course in joining the PE club if you're an IT veteran but I think terp06 was commenting on the short- to medium-term viability of making such a transition.
Despite the fact that a lot of MBA applicants are career changers, switching over to PE/HF/VC or even IB without any kind of prior background in that field is absolutely challenging, as is accomplishing the opposite.
In fact, I was recently speaking to an alumnus who's a Director at a bulge bracket in New York and he was explaining how hard it is for a former banker pursuing an MBA to try and get hired from IB to retail. Recruiting activities begin in earnest within a few months of you starting your first year in b-school and to try and make the argument that you've spent 4 years building models and preparing pitchbooks and now suddenly want to check out a summer internship that focuses on CPG marketing sounds a little weak. If you try to make the argument that you've worked in retail for 4 years and now want to do IB, it's even weaker, I suppose.
Obviously people do end up switching careers - rhyme moved from MC to VC I believe, and pelihu from law to IB - but IIRC they both had significant and somewhat related experience earlier.
I think if you look at it very objectively, the "MBA to facilitate career change" argument actually probably makes you somewhat of a risk in the eyes of the admissions committee, especially if you're talking about transitioning from IT to PE.
terp06 wrote:
It's simply not realistic. PE firms almost exclusively take people who have previous PE or Investment Banking experience. They may take a handful of M/B/B consultants, but that's about it. If someone from IT is interested in breaking into PE in the long-run, they would be wise to get into investment banking in the short-term right after school and make the transition later. Although I see nothing wrong with joining the club, and finding out more about it, I think it is sort of over-the-top to put your resume in the PE resume book as it is premature for an IT person to be searching for PE opportunities.