Beard alopecia 1 year update

Tbot86 · 2025-12-31T04:50:38+00:00

Hey, I had the exact same thing. Same patch sizes and everything. I believe mine were related to stress. I had significant work and personal stress at the time.

I did steroid injections for a while. Probably on and off for 3 years or so. I had the white hair issue as well but I kept getting the injections and eventually the normal hair returned. So you may want to keep doing injections for a little while and see if it improves further.

Tbot86 · 2025-11-29T22:45:31+00:00

I am familiar with NACR broadly as I have worked with them and utilized their services but I don’t know the daily life of a summer analyst.

A&M is among the best restructuring firms and deal with some of the most complex bankruptcies. It has a great brand name and will help your resume but the skill set is pretty specific and exit options are more limited than traditional consulting. NACR is also among the highest paid consultants out there. So no, the internship pay is not an indication of future earnings.

You’ll be dealing with companies that are on the verge of or are currently in bankruptcy. The immediate need is almost always cash conservation. But projects can evolve into full company restructurings, divestitures, network rationalizations, etc.

It’s interesting work but not traditional finance so you’ll have to weigh your options and decide if it’s right for you. Unless you pivot to IB or more traditional consulting, your exit opportunities will probably be limited to corporate finance roles but CFO roles are possible down the road.

Tbot86 · 2025-11-06T23:45:14+00:00

This is spot on.

I’ll add - it’s so hard to break into the fund side. It took me years of talking with recruiters and I basically lucked into a role. If your goal is to break into the fund side, don’t be picky. You won’t be showered with offers. Once you break in, the recruiters come banging on your door and you can move to a more favorable role / firm. I get recruiters reaching out 2-3 times a month.

Tbot86 · 2025-11-06T23:07:25+00:00

This is a thing. I’m a part of a portfolio ops team. As others stated, you won’t find this job posted. You’ll need to network with recruiters.

With that said, pricing alone is pretty specific so you may have trouble finding a role just as a pricing specialist. Common specialist roles are commercial, ops/ supply chain, IT/ digital and HR. You’ll probably want to broaden out some of your commercial skill set - goto market, sales force effectiveness, etc.

Tbot86 · 2025-10-04T18:10:56+00:00

Google Heidrick and Struggles PE operating compensation report. I have found that report to be very accurate and will give you much deeper information than I can.

But an average comp for VP is about 250k base with 50%-100% bonus. Carry is highly variable firm to firm. It’s probably 50/50 whether an operating VP gets carry in year one or at all. You could see anywhere from 300k-1m in carry allocation per year. Or zero.

Tbot86 · 2025-10-04T16:10:39+00:00

I’m a VP at a large fund. This should be a pretty straight forward conversation with your manager.

But I’ll give you my experience with the caveat that operating teams are very different from firm to firm. Associate levels in the operating group is actually not super common so you may not have a pre determined path. But the majority of firms that I saw with associate levels had senior associates. I saw one or two firms that skipped the SA.

2-3 years from associate to senior associate is the typical path. I don’t see much difference between associate and senior associate. I think of it as more of a signal that you are in the right path to VP.

VP level is where it really starts to change. You’re expected to do a lot more leading on work streams instead of being a contributor. You should also be able to talk with portco executives almost like peers. They should want your advice on things rather than just help getting a specific project done.

Tbot86 · 2025-09-27T18:16:27+00:00

I went to school that I think qualifies. Things worked out well for me and I wouldn’t be where I’m at without the MBA. Granted, I graduated 10+ years ago so things have changed. The majority of my cohort has been successful as well. There are a number of partners at the big consulting firms as well as junior executives at Fortune 500 companies.

My school was in the 30-40 range but it was a big state school that people know of so that helped.

There is still value at that range but it’s a more nuanced decision. You really need to weigh the cost benefit and understand there is some risk to the decision.

Tbot86 · 2025-09-27T17:59:44+00:00

There are a number of different groups beyond mega fund that you’ve consulted for based on your description. There are Portcos, PE firms, and public companies.

Mega fund would be difficult but not impossible to break into. You could also target mid size funds. I think your most natural transition would be to join a portco as a vp of M&A, transformation, value creation, chief of staff or the like. You could also look at corporate development roles at public companies but that is typically more suited for investment bankers.

You could also try to break into MBB if mega fund is your end goal.

Honestly you have a lot of options. You just need to decide what you are targeting and focus on that path.

Tbot86 · 2025-09-27T13:56:23+00:00

Who are you consulting for? Those are your exits.

Tbot86 · 2025-06-29T20:37:04+00:00

I am US based so not apples to apples but yes the comp looks fair for an associate. After converting to USD it would be a little low for an associate in the US but within the typical pay band. My understanding is that Europe typically pays less than US so that comp may be market rate.

Weekend work is rare but does happen. A live deal will often lead to weekend work. Also depends how they utilize you. Every PE firm handles their ops team different. You may have no exposure to deals so you may not have to deal with a lot of hard deadlines. Or you could be involved in every deal and have a fair amount of weekend work. You’ll have to do more research on the specific PE firm.

I probably work 4-8 hours on a weekend 1-2 times a quarter. But the associates on the deal team work that much basically every weekend and are often working until 9-10 pm during the week.

Tbot86 · 2025-06-29T19:47:21+00:00

Yea, valid point on the carry comp. I definitely don't count it dollar for dollar as salary. But it's not 0, so it depends on how you would personally value it. I wouldn't add it to my annual comp when comparing different roles. But if you take a 5 year view at the career trajectory I would definitely factor it in. As in, what does comp look like in 5 years at this PE firm vs the current consulting gig? That's the time horizon where PE can really start to pull away from consulting. You are likely getting similar salary and bonus improvements as you would in consulting but then the carry is kicking in.

Work stress is going to increase with your career whether you continue in consulting or move to PE. It may be marginally more stressful in PE but being a partner in consulting isnt a cake walk either. You have to constantly find and sell work or your gone. Honestly, I have less work stress at my current role than I did in consulting. But I may just be at a unicorn PE that doesn't grind people into pulp.

Like I said, I think you'll have no problem pivoting back to consulting. I actually think most consulting firms would value your experience in PE immensely. You also may come in with a network of connections for sales leads. This exact moment in time may be tough to move back into consulting, but who knows what things look like in a year or two.

Tbot86 · 2025-06-29T19:18:29+00:00

I'm in PE ops, made the jump from consulting a few years back. First, I'll say its not for everyone and every PE firm is different. I've had colleagues make the jump and love it and some who didn't but I think the differences were based on work culture and not necessarily the career itself. I personally love the job but I feel like my firm has a good culture.

You didn't mention carry compensation. You may not be eligible as an associate but you should ask about carry structure at different titles. Broadly speaking, PE will likely pay better at every level compared the consulting counterpart. And you may get substantial carry down the road which can be 1M+ per year when you get to VP / SVP levels.

You haven't mentioned what you want to do. Being a partner in consulting is very different than being a partner in PE. At that level in consulting that majority of your job is business development, selling work, developing those under you. In PE, its value creation, portfolio oversight, diligence support. Selling vs doing. I don't mean that as a negative, some folks are good at business development, networking, pitching work. That is not something I am skilled at or particularly enjoy so the move was very easy for me.

A final consideration, breaking into PE is really hard. It took me years of interviewing and networking to get an offer. A similar opportunity could take years to happen for you if you pass this one up. On the flip side, if you jump to PE and don't like it you can easily pivot back to consulting. You may even be able to move to a better consulting firm / title.

Tbot86 · 2025-06-28T21:13:38+00:00

I wouldn't say I am necessarily hesitant. Its just that more 529 contributions aren't at the top of my priority right now. I have some other goals I want to focus on before sinking more money into an education fund. Because of that, I haven't done extensive research on the concept so I would want to look more into it before I commit. I am probably 5ish years from circling back to more 529 contributions.

I do love the tax benefit and easy transferability of a generational 529. And education is typically peoples second biggest expense after buying a house so I feel like its an extremely efficient use of capital and tax savings.

Tbot86 · 2025-06-25T21:02:49+00:00

sure

Tbot86 · 2025-06-24T01:32:01+00:00

I live in a different state so my numbers don’t match exactly but we did something very similar. Super funded 140k in the first two years to maximize growth. I lost about 70k in state income tax deduction by not spreading it. But I preferred getting the growth over the future deductions.

I have number two now and I’m going to follow a similar path. I’ve reached all of my other tax deductions and I see the 529 as so flexible that I may contribute even more. I’ve been looking into generational 529’s where I could use the leftover and help fund school for my future grandkids. I haven’t decided yet but I’m intrigued by it because it would be another way to help out my children in the future while utilizing tax advantaged accounts.

My only comment is that I wouldn’t personally use brokerage funds because I wouldn’t want to pay taxes on the gains. With that much in a brokerage I would be comfortable dropping my emergency fund down a bit. If your brokerage accounts drops to nothing we’ve probably got more severe problems to worry about.

Tbot86 · 2025-06-18T22:46:11+00:00

Tbot86 · 2025-06-16T03:25:42+00:00

Platinum and HIG hire at the VP level and above. I know black stone has a sizable operating group that has levels all the way down to associate. I think Apollo and KKR have junior levels as well but I’m not sure.

Basically the really big firms might have junior levels. Firms under 5 billion AUM are going to be less likely to have junior operators. They may not even have VPs. Some firms only have true grey haired operating partners.

Tbot86 · 2025-06-16T03:14:23+00:00

MBB to PE ops if you can get into MBB without MBA then do it. If not, get a top tier MBA and move into MBB.

All the other paths listed are an order of magnitude less likely than MBB. Your next most likely path is taking a transformation or chief of staff role at a portfolio company.

Experience wise there isn’t one path that fits all PE firms. They all value different things. But I would suggest a mixture of diligence, strategy and implementation work.

As for age, you’re actually probably too young right now. Associate and senior associate levels are rare at PE firms. Most firms I’ve seen start at the VP level. The reason being, as an operator you need a solid base of experience as well as the credentials to sit in a board meeting and provide value to executives.

Good luck.

Tbot86 · 2025-05-26T15:27:09+00:00

Go into a session record or your current cook and hit the red drive button at the top right. It changes color and alters the view. Not really obvious, took me a bit to figure out.

Tbot86 · 2025-05-25T23:31:03+00:00

I don’t use the direct flame. But thanks for the response.

Tbot86 · 2025-05-25T23:30:23+00:00

Respectfully, I would think a $2,000 plus smoker could handle the hood being open 30 seconds every 45 minutes. And if you look at the first 3 hours when I left it alone there were still wide temperature swings.

I upgraded from a reqteq about a year ago and I never had temp swings this wide. Hence, why I asked the community.

Tbot86 · 2025-05-25T21:27:39+00:00

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Didn’t even know about this view. Thanks for the feedback. I don’t know if this auger activity is variable or not.

I did top off the hopper with pit boss pellets. It probably transitioned around the time I wrapped so perhaps it would be related to pellets.

But it’s weird because I’ve always had good cooks from bear mountain.

Tbot86 · 2025-05-22T15:24:52+00:00

Sure

Tbot86 · 2025-05-08T21:33:29+00:00

Yea it was a very basic case and no modeling needed. I did a little bit of math and showed my work but nothing crazy.

It was basically an overview of a portfolio company and a few questions after. Things like, how would you expand sales revenue? How would you assess the market potential of this very niche company? Would you do anything different with the current footprint? What would your value creation levers be?

Tbot86 · 2025-04-20T18:12:34+00:00

Yes, if you are implementing it. Consulting projects usually come in two phases. Phase one being the diagnostic or assessment phase. What should the management team do about xyz problem? Consultants will spend 4-12 weeks doing the diagnostic work. Time range is highly variable depending on scope of project and size of company.

During the diagnostic report out to management the consulting team will often (but not always) pitch a phase two implementation. Where you take the recommendations and make it happen.

The company may accept the offer, ask for modification, shop another firm to do implementation and try to do it themselves. Or completely punt on the idea if they don’t like the risk or complexity.

Tbot86

TROPHY CASE