PE funds dont often hire someone in just to improve the portfolio, not as a permanent position in any case. Far more commonplace is to either hire in an experienced interim/contractor/consultant to do the work, or (and you need to look carefully at this) to engage a consulting firm to do it, and it is not uncommon for firms which specialise in this to be owned by PE firms themselves. Much of the work within PE itself (employed by the fund) will be transactional in nature - identifying and securing suitable acquistions, and looking at the investment case for that acquisition. Expect a lot of analytical work - which is why their first hiring priority is typically an Associate from a bulge bracket, and then perhaps from the likes of MBB. And they have no shortage of applicants from either route, in what has become a one out one in industry.What you are looking for is a kind of work which actually sits within the mainstream of consulting, you just need to ensure you are getting into the right firms, either specialists or who have a specialist practice. Work around performance improvement, turnaround, potentially restructuring (although that effectively brings you back close to the analytical type work and a finance or legal background is usually needed) is all relevant here. So, now we have clarified what you want to do, options 2 and 3 are still the right ones. Option 2 - position yourself in the portfolio itself and do a great job on it, but this assumes that you'll get the opportunities to deliver a significant performance improvement or be able to handle a restructuring situation which at 4 years experience is unlikely. You'll need to try and catch the eye of a PE fund which, other than the observer on th board, is likely to be quite a distant entity in your BAU life. It's a credible option though. Option 3 - the one you seem most reluctant about, will in fact give you just what you need - direct exposure to funds, CDD experience (it's absolutely essential, trust me) and the very useful Big 4 business card. All the Big 4 have thriving corporate recovery practices fuelled by PE business, so they will already have the reputation and roster of contacts. You dont need to be advising KKR, most PE funds are midmarket focused where the deals are. You will need the CDD experience - how else will you be able to design and run a diagnostic across a disparate portfolio and design the models to determine which will be merged, carved out or divested? How will you be able to determine where capital investment should go or whether to run down one business unit as non core to free up working capital for another?A PE firm will want its pound of flesh - yes they can be exciting, vibrant organisations and utterly compelling. But they will want to know you can be paid the big bucks and left to get on with it. What appeals to them is the breadth MCs bring to the table - banking is very binary, meaning IB backgrounds are great at the transactional work, but useless downstream. Tracking performance isnt going to be a demanding role - certainly wont stretch you as a PE portfolio is inherently less volatiile than say a hedge fund, or even a mutual. You need to be focusing on the mid-game for the fund, and that means knowing how to build value which will be realised on a mid-term time horizon - so the strat role in house will give you that visibility, but from a fixed point, the CDD experience in Big 4 will give you the tools to work it out across floating points.Either way will work.
