Looking for Life Advice
Dear WSO Fountain of Wisdom,
I need your help to tell me what it is that I might not be thinking about when considering three main job options that I am likely to be faced with soon. Given that I'm in Australia, and the market is smaller and consolidated, you'll see that the options are quite varied.
Background:
Former U.S. Army Captain (5 yrs), knocked out an MBA from a top 5 European Business School, and have been working at MBB Consulting (anonymity) for nearly 2 years as a post-MBA Consultant. 30 Y.O.
Current Situation:
I've been getting good traction from recruiters in the direct investment space and have been interviewing across Australia for a couple months. I'm ready to pull the rip cord on consulting and am now faced with some interesting options as I wrap up interviews.
Option 1: Mid-Cap PE firm w/ portfolio improvement focus (Associate)
Primarily hire ex-tier 1 Consultants because they have a strong focus on not only being part of the 'deal team' but also playing a very active role--in a consulting sense-- with the operational improvements of the company. It's a ground-level Associate role, but get exposure to carried interest with opportunities (given its mid-cap) to play a role on boards very early in career. Probably similar pay as Consulting with bigger upside down the track 5-6 years. Feels relatively corporate and can forsee it as being a hard grind. Definitely a pure 'office job'.
Option 2: Venture Capital firm with Crowd-funding investment platform (Ambiguous Role Title)
This company has grown fairly rapidly. To be honest, this is more relationship/sales role. I'd basically be managing the two-sided market: 1) Spreading awareness to ventures seeking funding, screen them, and then post on the platform to get exposure to crowd funding; and 2) Manage relationships and exposure with HNWI where I can present to them a selection of companies that they can buy into. There would be some DD, but mostly relationships. Kicker Similar comp to Consulting but will also receive ~$500k of interest free loan to invest in the ventures as a way of 'getting skin in the game'. Super chill working environment, international travel, and exposure to cool new companies, ideas, and trends.
Option 3: Young VC fund focusing on investments with social/environmental impact (Associate)
Associate role where I'd due DD and assessments on potential VC investments. The objective is to achieve strong financial returns with deep social/environmental impact (think a lot of 'share economy'-type investments). The working environment is fairly close to ideal (very laid-back community, fairly casual attire, no 'work face' for the office, near the beach). However, because they are sub-scale (but growing) at the moment, I'd be taking a significant haircut on salary initially with the expectation that I'd get exposure to carried interest (but off a low base).
This leads to the natural question, "what do I want" out of a job if I could make a unicorn role
What do I want (personally):
- Income that in time could get to $600k/p.a.
- Prefer to be relationship-driven rather than purely an Excel Monkey
- Lead people/projects rather than pontificate
- Work towards something I believe in, which for me, is addressing climate change through responsible investment
- Feel content at work--and no, not fairies and pixie dust-- but rather makes the day feel like "that was a decent day at work" versus "check phone at 5:30AM for emails, groan "I hate my life" and then take the train in where you stare into the abyss of your screen until Midnight."
Each of these three options have their own pluses and minuses and none of them are bad.
However, what am I not considering, over-playing, under-weighting, etc.?
