Tech Start-Up M&A Analyst Laid-Off
I was recently a victim of a companywide restructuring lay-off wave at a health-tech start up. Nothing related to performance, but this caught me completely by surprise. Would love some advice on how to move forward from this.
Some background:
- 30% of the company was laid-off
- I worked for this company for about 6 months
- Staffed on several potential acquisitions, nothing close to the finish line
- Prior experience, FP&A analyst at a F100
- First job out of college, 1 year total
Questions:
1) How should I frame this when speaking to recruiters/ potential employers?
a) Should I pretend to still be employed while recruiting?
b) How much of a blemish is this on my resume?
2) Should I take this opportunity and focus on transitioning to IB to complete the ~2year grind? I always pondered how much my career would benefit from following the traditional route.
3) Would it possible to transition to the buy-side?
4) How likely is success when negotiating severance when employed for less than a year?
Any advice will be greatly appreciated.
Can't comment on all aspects of it but jump in for a few:It sucks to be laid off, but given the current environment I'm pretty sure HR or any recruiter will understand, and not blame you for it (have seen people jumping ship 10 times before 30 and still ending up somewhere). Spin the story around what you've learned, that you had a short stint but fast paced environment and picked up a lot. It was your first job, you felt no "liabilities" (family to take care of, gf/fiancée, kids etc) but you now want to follow up in a more settled environment and continue the grind (just make a nice story out of it). It's way easier to recruit while being employed than unemployed as you give up lots of leverage (they know you're in need and not due to testing your market value / out of strength) but it's doable (speaking from own experience). Just don't bend yourself too much over. Some firms try to take advantage of it and make ridiculously low or bad offers but I feel like you should know your own worth and adjust to it (eventually cuts will have to be made but not as drastically as with the bad offers). If you say you're still employed in your CV and it comes up during the interview and you say you're not or their certificate mentions another date, it gets awkward to say at least.Contact your alumni, use LinkedIn, ask friends if they heard something. You'll be fine, just bring yourself upfront for whatever opportunity might suddenly pop up.Negotiating severance for less than a year seems close to impossible to me but others might correct me or they cover you in some way, but don't count on anything, just assume you're on the battlefield again and have to use the resources available to you.Regarding IB/Buy-side can't provide much useful advice but sure others will do.Best of luck, mate.
Thank you for the advice Akephalos, this was extremely helpful.
Believe it or not this is actually not a terrible position to be in at all.
1a: You should be honest. Getting laid off from a Tech firm (in today's market) is more understandable and less your fault than would be leaving a company by choice after only 6 months, especially with one short tenure on your resume already (12 months and out at a F500)
1b: Note that the company was affected by 30% layoffs and you were on a growth/expansion team. Again, it isn't your fault and it is very understandable. It would be more of a blemish if you left after only 6 months by choice because you got bored / couldn't commit / didn't do your diligence on what you were getting into, etc.
2) I think in this market that would definitely be the safe thing to do. If your ultimate goal is Corp Dev at a Tech company or Growth company, IB will certainly only help your opportunities. It is also probably easier to find an IB hiring today than it is to find a Tech start-up hiring today. You may also discover other avenues you like the same if not better (Growth Equity, Asset Management, LBOs, etc.)
3) I think at this point you COULD do it, but it would have to be a boutique, LMM firm that you did a great job networking with. Options will be expanded massively with a 2 year IB stint. If buy-side is your end-goal, by all means the IB path is the quickest & safest route there.
4) If it's a small start-up, it's going to be a lot harder. They may just flat out not have the money to keep paying you. Worse come to worst ask if you can at least be kept on employer healthcare.
Thanks for this Chungus, this was really helpful. Seems like IB is the most probable step so I'll start focusing my resources there.
Just curious, how far along with the healthcare tech firm you worked for? Are they still in series rounds of funding?
I've always kind of wondered where in the business life cycle it makes sense for a company to build out a corp dev team (generally).
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