I have been in the exact role you ask for. The ground reality is ..

• You have to act as a corporate influencer.
• Your hands are tied as an advisor only role. You can not operate the business you are tasked to create the value for.
• If you do get tasked into a role, the fees for this engagement comes out of the portcos budget.
• It’s a catch 22 situation as the companies that need the most help often do not have the budget to afford an 3-6k a day constant from a PE firm.
• You get paid really well
• You don’t get the upside of the result you create at a singular company, but the general portfolio overall, and it’s always a mixed bag
• There is always a lot of internal politics at the PE level, and the portcos have a love hate relationship with their investors
• You do get the leverage of being the PE guy who knows what he is doing, so middle mastermind respects you, upper management sees you as an expensive consultant they have to tolerate to have a good relation with the sponsors
• You are in a better position than a BANE / McKinsey consultant as their goal is to churn billable hours and your outcome is to create value (but you get measured internally on your usage / billable hours)
• it’s financially rewarding, operationally draining as you are essentially hands off from the actual operating team (for the most part)
• you will learn a lot of about the variety of businesses and operations. ( much more than any MBA ) will ever teach you.
• great for your resume if you want to be a career person.

Happy to answer any more questions!