PM underperforming, closing my market, zero bonus, likely out of a job soon — advice?
I’ve been an analyst at a long/short fund for a little over a year.
Pay is substantially below market average: 1/2 or even 1/3 Base.
My PM is underperforming and tends to shift blame even though I was up in paper portfolio performance. Because of his track record, he will be closing my market coverage in 2026 and reallocating capital away — which realistically means I’ll be out of a job soon. I also got zeroed on comp this year.
Has anyone been in a similar situation? How did you navigate the decision to stay for optionality vs. moving to another platform where comp and career progression are more aligned with contribution? Any advice on timing or approach is appreciated.
Honestly I’d start looking for another job now while you still have this seat. Staying at this seat for optionality sounds like a crazy idea when the guy is zeroing you out, shutting your coverage and also pays you below market. Go work for someone better that’ll pay you at least a respectable wage.
Do your diligence though for the next seat. Plenty of guys like this in the industry
You need to quickly secure another seat before you are out of a job. Interviewing with limited resources is very tough.
Can you elaborate on what you mean by this
If OP is trying to interview for an analyst role, it is very likely he will get asked to pitched investment ideas as part of the interview process. I have heard requests to pitch anything from as little as 2 long 2 short ideas to as many as 15 long 15 shorts. When you are out of a job, your access to broker resources or Bloomberg is very limited. You can get some goodwill here and there, but your ability to research is going to be much more limited than if you were sitting in an analyst seat currently with access to everything.
It is not impossible to interview with limited resources, it just makes your interview process much more difficult. Not to mention all the narrative burden of trying to explain why your boss fired you. The job search process gets more downhill the longer you are out of a job.
Wow you need to seriously read the room. He's effectively firing you, though he's kinda giving you the benefit of keeping the pretense of staying employed, which makes the search easier for you.
Don't waste a day and start your search right now. There's no telling whether it'll be 1 or 3 months before he calls time, but it's definitely coming.
What does his track record have to do with your coverage ?
My PM has been underperforming in my market for the past 2 years now. I’ve been covering the market for the past year. The previous analyst under him left due to anxiety and was underperforming as well. Thing is our investment styles are very different - He likes to be contrarian and has gone Long names which I felt were fundamental Shorts (despite me trying to tell him otherwise) and vice versa with our positions vastly different. I’ve been consistently outperforming this year with only 4 weeks where I drew down & most of my earnings calls went the right way.
Now he’s pinning his underperformance on me because “I should have convinced him to follow my positions” and getting zeroed on comp which I found quite ridiculous.
sorry to hear that man, that's tough. agree with others on beginning to look asap.
Basic principles about this industry:
leave now
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