Debrief on the first weeks of info interviews...

For the past couple of weeks, I did informational interviews with friends and classmates that work in the finance industry. Unfortunately, none of them work directly in private equity and my main goals were to have some reviews of my resume from people that work in finance, get some perspective on the current job outlook in the industry, and discuss how to best transition into private equity leveraging my experience in the energy and IT sector.

I spoke with a half a dozen folks and several of them thought that I could go directly into a private equity or venture capital firm, particularly those that specialize in the energy or IT Security sector (which are both red hot, see below). Many of the companies will value the experience that I have in the industry when evaluating opportunities and also my industry knowledge will generate leads for new deals/investments. 

Others thought that it would be beneficial for me to spend some time as an analyst for a large investment banking firms, so I could get some deep knowledge of the industry players. For now, I am going to focus on the private equity and venture capital firms directly, not for any particular reason, other than I think targeting both types of opportunities would stretch me a little thin. I would rather do great focused networking, and then look for opportunities in the private equity and venture capital firms.

The people that have helped me so far have been amazingly gracious with their time and support, and access to their networks. Thank you all!!! 

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Amazing Recent Energy and IT Security Deals... 

http://www.pehub.com/109317/icontrol-networks-inks-50m-series-d/

http://www.pehub.com/108990/vcs-bulk-up-in-computer-security/

http://www.pehub.com/109467/contour-energy-systems-inks-series-c/

http://www.pehub.com/109362/solarbridge-raises-19m-from-existing-new-investors/

http://www.pehub.com/108771/google-solarcity-announce-280m-fund-for-solar-projects/