Up for promotion to senior associate - ask for a sabbatical?

Partners called me into a meeting with them a few weeks back and told me I'd be up for promotion for senior associate at my MM PE firm. My class has 2 other associates - one girl is leaving for Wharton MBA and the other guy is going to a VC firm we are associated with, so it's really just me left.

Reason I ask is because recently a couple college friends have started their first or second significant job changes around our ages (24-27) and frankly just having no worries for a while sounds amazing. I had a weird start date on my move from IB to PE so I didn't really get a chance to take time off there, so the last time I've really just had a few weeks off is right after college graduation which was 5.5 years ago. I've been thinking about asking for a short sabbatical upon promotion to senior associate - does anyone have experience with this? If so, what's an appropriate length of time to ask for? 2 weeks? 3? 4+?

 
Best Response

Since 2 associates are leaving/already left, are there any other associates? I assume you hired a new class? If so, I think it's definitely a reasonable request. Offer to train the new class of associates (1-2 weeks), then you should be good.

I, like you, had an unconventional start date as well and I just had this conversation with the partners at my firm in November.

 

One other associate left, but he has only been here a few months so we're not really on the same track. He'd be fully up to speed by the time I took any significant time off. We also have someone starting this summer as an associate coming out of IB. Offering to train the new guy sounds like a good idea.

How did your convo go with the partners? Did you get any pushback? Also curious to hear how long you targeted to take off.

 
CHItizen:

One other associate left, but he has only been here a few months so we're not really on the same track. He'd be fully up to speed by the time I took any significant time off. We also have someone starting this summer as an associate coming out of IB. Offering to train the new guy sounds like a good idea.

How did your convo go with the partners? Did you get any pushback? Also curious to hear how long you targeted to take off.

ill PM

 

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