What's Next?
Long story short, my two years at my fund are almost over.. they promoted the two associates that got here slightly before me and gave me the boot. Not sure if it was performance related (was told in my review I am at 90% and need to be at 150%), because they can't close a fund and need to burn some headcount, or a combination of both.
Either way, it left a very sour taste in my mouth as I kept my head down the whole time and grinded on mind numbing and pointless tasks for some Partners that didn't speak up once in my favor during my review. I kept myself removed from politics and thought my hard work would speak for itself but boy was I wrong. I thought I'd atleast have another bonus coming since my first one was stubbed and they kind of jipped me on my second one and lied to me about getting carry.
Since the performance review a couple of months back they have grinded me to the bone. I initially lost motivation and then got talked to and essentially threatened to be fired if I slacked off any longer. I didn't have anything lined up then so I have worked weeknights, weekends, you name it and I am working.. all for a job that is letting me go by end of July. I am burnt out to say the least and I want out immediately. I don't want to do PE, I don't want to go back to IB, I want to do corp dev / corp finance and get some of my life back. I haven't had much luck recruiting but I haven't been going that hard given my work schedule and they don't seem to be letting their foot off the gas on my workload.
Would it be a bad idea to give a months notice and quit without something lined up? What is the downside here? They don't seem to be helping me in any capacity to find a new role nor are they giving me any time to recruit. My thought process was that if I give them until end of June then they would start rolling me off projects and I can try to get a kickstart on recruiting. Thoughts?
Bump
Tough position and sorry to hear. For what it is worth, you aren't the only person in this position and I know of a number of people that have rolled of, or are rolling off their associate programs. I would tough it out and try and end on a high note - you have made it this far and have three months left in the associate program...don't give them the benefit of the doubt thinking you couldn't hack it, and finish out the commitment. If you leave and put in notice, it sounds like there would only be a one month difference, which to me isn't worth it. When you do eventually recruit for new jobs and find a good fit, they will likely want to reference check your most recent employer as well, which is the main reason I would stay. The recruiting market is also pretty tough right now and the more time you are in your current seat could help.
I resonate with a lot of this. I left for F500 corp dev after my 2 years in PE.
What I would recommend doing is trying to network with people in corp dev / strat / fp&a / biz ops who have former PE / IB / Management consulting backgrounds. Those folks will know the value of your skillset and will pay you appropriately. It is hard to find these jobs and you do have to put in the time and energy to network, spin your story, do case studies, etc. but there are very real opportunities out there. I would assume $175-225k all in cash comp + remote is market for a "good" corporate exit.
The other strategy you can take is reach out to all the ordinary PE head hunters and tell them you're open to portco roles and they'll send you a bunch of stuff. Yes corp dev or FP&A at some random LMM roll up sounds boring, but if it is remote and good cash comp it can give you some breathing room to think about what you actually want in life.
After PE, I personally went and became a digital nomad for 2.5 years before finally moving back to NYC. It was a great time to get lost in the world and learn new things about myself. After that period in my life, no amount of money could ever convince me to go back to a cube wearing business casual.
Are you still in the F500 corp dev role? Would it keep a bit more optionality than a similar role at an LMM type portco?
Appreciate the response man, I think where you ended up sounds a lot like where I want to be. I am getting older and need to think about my personal life also, I think I am too burnt out too keep going in PE even at a different firm. How long do you think the networking and getting a job should take? I am in a weird position right now where I am getting cranked and the workload isn't stopping, which is preventing me from taking this seriously
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