Hi there,
I have been getting calls for positions for an accountant working in a private equity firms as I have experience working in small medium sized accounts practice.
Can anyone give an insight into the following:
whether this is a good career choice?
what sort of personality would suit this type of work?
what drawbacks are there of working for such companies?
Any insight would be very helpful.
Thanks
Replies (2)
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In a previous life
I worked for a small private equity outfit. The work is quite varied but a lot of it was research into companies and and preparing investment memorandums that I had to present to an investment committee.
For the accounting side in addition to the normal accounting cycle, there was a lot of monthly valuations of businesses from stock prices to sucking ones thumb.
Type pf person - well it depends its not the typical accounting role where you sit in an office and process the output from accounting systems. There is a lot of interacting with other members of the company and so you need to be comfortable dealing with people.
It was very interesting so much so that it eventually purred me onto starting my own business as the company i worked for invested in a lot of small startups (probably more VC than private equity) and I was tired of watching other people get on with it. (this wasn't my accounting business that I set up.).
the advantages are that you can make some decent connections in the business and you get to see what a lot of businesses are up to where as in a normal accounting role you get a good idea of the industry you are in. In private equity you will get a much wider exposure, both geographically and industry wise.
Disadvantages - cant think of any.
I recommend it.
Working as an accountant in a private equity firm is good to start your career as you'll have greater opportunity to ladder up your career in this field by adding this experience in your accounting resume. But, if you've some experience in this field then search for a good career option.