Tech to Private Equity/Asset Management/Wealth Management

Hello everyone, I am a senior student from a USNEWS Top50 University(UW-Madison/UIUC/Purdue/UT-Austin, etc), majoring CS+Math, and I decided to switch from the tech industry to Private Equity/Asset Management/Wealth Management. I want some advice about it.

Background: international student; female; plenty of software development engineer internships (some startups, some Google/Meta/MS/Amazon), a marketing internship(not in the United States), and entrepreneurial experience.

Motivation: I was interested in Private Equity/Asset Management/Wealth Management a long time ago, but I chose the tech industry for various reasons, and then I gradually realized that I didn't like coding and couldn't stand it. I know I should have chosen finance four years ago instead of now, but there is nothing I can do to change that. Before that I applied for a master of computer science and the application is being reviewed.

My goal is to eventually find a full-time job that offers sponsorship, how should I plan my job search? I would appreciate could give me some advice! :)

 
Most Helpful

Your best bet will be to find a fund that has a specialty in the technology sector - plenty of PE/AM funds do this. Leverage your former tech experience on the operations side in order to keep yourself competitive while learning the equity side in your first months. You'll need to find an internship or SA gig to break into this space and perform there in order to receive a full-time offer. 

For starting, I'd try to contact your school's alumni network, and speak with your department's advisors and/or professors to see if they can put you in contact with anyone in your college who has done the same transition. It's late in the ball game to have this stuff lined up (as you stated), but is by no means an end-all that'll bar you from being able to work in the space you'd like. I switched my concentration during my junior year of undergrad and still ended up alright. 

Dedicate some hours per day on LinkedIn and/or Handshake for postings. Start with a narrowed search regarding sector/specialty/location/etc and expand out from there. You'll apply for a lot of applications - expect as a general rule of thumb (speaking conservatively so as to not get hopes up) around 5-7 interviews per 100 applications you put out. It seems like a lot, but most of these are pre-cut and plug-and-play-type stuff with autofill resumes and pre-uploaded CLs. 

If I had to guess, an LMM Tech Specialty PE or AM fund would be your best bet. From there, you can learn under management and gain relevant experience so that you may properly lateral and/or expand in the future to set yourself up right. It won't be the easy linear path, but it's certainly not impossible. Best of luck to you!

 

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