VC vs PE - What's the better career option?

Great question! VC and PE are night-and day different. Here are a few of the main elements that differ.

VC

• Major Responsibilities: Skewed more toward sourcing and relationship-building. Find markets and companies that you like and building relationships with CEOs. Often a lot of emphasis on adding value post-investment as well.
• Work-life Balance: Typically a bit better, but varies widely and generally still not 9-5
• Compensation: Often tied to AUM and a bit lower than most PE

PE

• Major Responsibilities: Skewed more toward deal execution and modeling. Some PE firms have sourcing focuses at junior levels, but most of the role will be quantiatively focused on valuation, leverage, and presenting analyses to investment committee.
• Work-life Balance: Typically a bit longer hours, but varies widely
• Compensation: Often tied to AUM and often higher

There are 10,000 other differences, though--let's set up a free intro session and discuss pros and cons for you specifically!

Hi there,

First of all, congratulations on the offers!

I would be happy to share my thoughts on your question:

• I would highly advise you to opt for the option that better aligns with your professional (and maybe even personal) mid- to long-term goals. In order to make an informed decision, I would advise you to do the following:
  • Weigh the different criteria that are meaningful to you independently of the current options (e.g., exit opportunities, location, culture, compensation). After that, score the two options based on your criteria and their weighting, resulting in two scores. This way, you have covered the left-brain perspective.
  • Critically assess your initial reaction to the outcome of the scores. For instance, if you feel the urge to tweak the numbers, this is a solid indicator that you do not want this decision to become reality. This way, you have covered the right-brain perspective.
  • By doing so, you will be able to integrate both parts of the brain into the decision-making, guaranteeing a higher chance that you will still be happy with it years later.

If you would like a more detailed discussion on your specific situation, please don't hesitate to contact me directly.

Best,

Hagen