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I have coming up M&A transaction parterner interview. How can i prepare for that?

It’s not going to help with this type of transition. No one will question your accounting/audit skills.

I appreciate your response, thank you! Would you recommend me getting my CPA?

I am not sure about internal mobility within PE firms, but your best bet is probably just to approach the senior-most deal team member (assuming you know them or have at least traded emails/calls before) and directly ask about transferring. If they don’t even seem open to it, then you may have to get deal experience elsewhere first, such as at a Big 4 firm or even a boutique bank. It doesn’t make much sense, but recruiting in this industry is strange.

If you’re still early in your first year at this firm, wait at least ~6 months until you get more deal experience and prove yourself first.

These roles sometimes open up when PE firms raise new funds or hire new Partners, but I would not wait too long for that to happen because the longer you wait, the harder it is to get in (you’d be better off by joining a different firm where you can get actual deal experience vs. waiting several years there).

After graduating from a mid-tier university, I went into a large accounting firm as an auditor specializing in financial services such as PE and hedge funds. After a year there I moved into a senior accountant role at a well-respected PE firm working directly with the deal/investment team. I am currently very early in my first year here at this PE role. What should be my next steps, duration, etc. to move into the investment side. Any tips?

Thanks

Yes, that would be one option. I can’t say why your first attempt at transferring didn’t work, but I don’t think it has much to do with your degree.

I can’t really say without knowing your full background (university, grades, experience, internships, networking), but at this stage, you’ll probably need a top MBA to break in. At the 5+ year mark, you’re over-qualified for Analyst roles, and firms generally won’t hire you as an Associate without an MBA or previous experience.

I am currently on a 3-year ACA graduate scheme in audit at a Big 4 firm in the UK. I am nearing the end of my first year and at this point passed 7/15 ACA exams (all on first try). It is my dream to work in M&A at a bulge bracket bank but I am not sure about how to achieve this. I have been told that once I finish my grad scheme and become a chartered accountant, then I can request to transfer internally to Deals. Is my best route to finish ACA, work 1-2 years in Deals and then get an MBA? I applied for IB internships and analyst roles before and passed numerical and verbal reasoning tests but never got to the interview stage; I think this is probably because of my degree not being relevant to finance which in Maths and Computer Science from Imperial College. From what I also know, none of the departments at my firm apart from audit were hiring when I was applying for grad schemes in the middle of the pandemic.

I am an ACCA qualified Internal Auditor (Financial Services) with 5 years experience since graduating. I have tried to break into investment banking every year for the last 5 years, and keep getting rejected at initial application stage. I suspect going to a poorly ranked university isn’t helping my case (even though I obtained a 1st).

I have applied for both analyst and occasionally associate roles.

I feel like I have run out of options now. Should I just give up? Or is there something I am missing? (I doubt even getting an MBA will make any difference at this point.)

Any advice would be much appreciated.