Employers

Private equity firms are located throughout the United States and the world. In the U.S., most are located in large cities such as New York, Los Angeles, and Chicago. Only a few thousand (at the most) marketing specialists are employed at private equity firms. Outside the PE industry, nearly 678,500 marketing managers, specialists, and research analysts are employed in the public and private sectors, so there are many job opportunities.

Starting Out

Since marketing jobs in the PE industry are so tough to land, a good strategy is to seek out employment opportunities in other alternative investment sectors (e.g., venture capital, hedge funds, etc.), investment or commercial banks, consulting firms, large Fortune 500 companies or nonprofits or government agencies that have marketing departments. After a few years of experience, you can apply for PE positions. You can identify job openings by using social media and job-search sites, attending career fairs and other networking events, and using the resources of your college’s career services office. Participation in a marketing internship or co-op are other good strategies to obtain experience and impress potential employers. 

The American Marketing Association explores different pathways into the marketing field at https://www.ama.org/marketing-news/if-the-marketing-career-fits/.

Marketing professionals advance by receiving pay raises and by working for better-known PE firms. Within a particular firm, entry-level marketing assistants can become marketing coordinators/managers, and then directors. It’s important to keep in mind that most PE marketing departments are small, so there are few advancement opportunities. Advancement paths are much more defined at large companies outside the private equity industry.  

Start your job search by investigating employment opportunities at the largest PE firms (those which are most likely to have large marketing departments). Private Equity International (https://www.privateequityinternational.com/pei-300) publishes an annual list of the 300 biggest private equity firms.

Visit the following Web sites for job listings:

• https://jobs.ama.org
• https://jobs.insightsassociation.org/?msessid=Sd9SB
• https://www.efinancialcareers.com 

To learn more about the field, read:

• Alert! (http://www.marketingresearch.org/stay-informed/alert-magazine)
• MarketingNews (https://www.ama.org/marketing-news-home)
• Journal of Alternative Investments (https://jai.pm-research.com)
• PE HUB (https://www.pehub.com)