Enter Private Equity: How To

Jasbina Ahluwalia asks Sheila Dharmarajan: Wow, I love all of the messages that you just shared in that. I love how you connected the dots and said, “I have all of these experiences and I want to bring them together.”

Your follow-up was great. You were confident. I’m sure there are many other people who would be thinking, “Woulda, coulda, shoulda.” But you actually did it. That is very inspirational.

You’re now in private equity. Do you have any insights or guidance for listeners interested in entering that field? You talked about the hustle.

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Sheila Dharmarajan

Enter Private Equity: Timing

I ended up having this amazing television reporting career for four and a half years. Then it was time for another pivot in my career. I was ready to come back to finance.

I thoroughly enjoyed journalism. I thoroughly enjoyed television reporting.

When I thought about my future career and opportunity, I knew I wanted to come back to finance.

Enter Private Equity: Network

Again, a lot of the lessons that we’ve woven through our conversation so far applied.

For anyone who is interested in looking at private equity, don’t be afraid to talk to anyone and everyone.

You have to reach out. You have to put yourself out there. That’s the only way that people are going to know you’re interested.

Enter Private Equity: Evolved Industry

I think the good thing about private equity these days is that the industry has evolved and institutionalized to a certain extent.

About 10 or 15 years ago, the scope of the roles within private equity were fairly limited.

You were either an investment professional and maybe you did some fundraising. Maybe you were on the admin side.

Now, because the industry has evolved so much, there are a lot of different ways you can touch private equity. It might be in a role like mine, which is business development.

You might do deals and be an investment professional or be an operating executive, working at a portfolio company.