I'm a 3rd year analyst on the verge of quitting. I just clipped my bonus and there's been turnover so the staffing situation is bleak and honestly I've gotten what I need out of this jo. I have no interest in investing, would rather go work corporate or for a startup at this point. Curious to hear your stories
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Have coworkers and acquintances who have done this and it's 1000x worse to recruit with no job and this market is completely horrendous. Several have been unemployed for a year or more. Unless you have a serious safety net from your family I would be careful with this. Corporate and startup recruiting is tough right now, even if you want to downgrade to something like FP&A they will get tons of applicants.
If you are just bored, phone it in and start recruiting like crazy. Even if you are in a really bad spot, I would take FMLA for mental health or ask for other unpaid leave long before I just quit with something lined up
Yea the job market is pretty tough right now but there’s a lot of hiring specifically for AI startups. I’ve been interviewing and made 2nd place twice but I think my low energy from balancing it with working FT is stopping me from giving it my all. Fortunately can just move 30 mins away back in with my parents so savings aren’t an issue
I think it's way easier said than done to land those types of roles, I would probably recruit for a little bit and see how the market is before quitting, but if you are okay going 12 months without a job then go for it
I literally had a crash out day one day. I packed up my stuff and just walked out of the office at 2pm on a tuesday, no 2 weeks, no exit interviews, I was definitely the talk of the group for the next couple months lol, I probably could not have handled this any worse but whatever.
Was unemployed for 8 months. Actually had very decent traction and landed a bunch of interviews across venture, corporate development, strategic finance, etc. Got insanely lucky and accepted a job I am head over heels about, pays more than IB ($220k+ all in), and very good hours (around 45ish). I came from a non-target undergrad and my bank was relatively weak (non-BB / EB but still large presence)
I think the general consensus is yes it is a bad idea and that it is 100x easier to recruit when you have a job, but I think I prove that it is not the absolute end of the world. Seems like a decent amount of employers will understand.
Damn lol, that is amazing. If you don't mind me asking, how many months/years were you in the IB job before leaving and was it your first job out of school?
Did you have specific preferences for job function / industry / company size? How many job apps were you doing per day?
Also did you primarily go about recruiting via LinkedIn or did you leverage other website/headhunters?
I am bummed right now, I had 5 interviews for a job I think I would really like and did well on the case study and they still gave it to someone with more seniority. One thing I'm struggling with is how to best prepare for interviews, IB interviews were so methodical so I sometimes think my approach to interviewing for some of these corporate jobs is less than ideal.
Happy to help man.
I hear you bro. I remember I spent no joke maybe 30-55 hours on a full DoorDash case study + model + presentation and did not get it.
Saw you mentioned you work in strategy now. Currently looking to move into internal strategy from consulting. While you moved from IB, how have you found the new role so far in terms of scope of responsibilities and type of work?
Adding to the chorus about only do this if you have the cash reserves available to ride out the full cycle (18-24 months) with no change in lifestyle.
No background in IB, but I did quit without anything lined up. Fantasizing about quitting is one thing, but there is no greater peace of mind than knowing you can watch the next couple seasons come and go without an income and be just fine.
Totally hear you, yea fortunately my family situation permits this so it's not really a big consideration for me
I know a guy who did this recently. He had to step down a level in seniority but he has a great job at a top shop (coming from a small unknown fund in other city) in nyc now. It took him a couple weeks to get a job. He is really good at what he does, but I think part of it is luck too.
I did quit without a job lined up as a MM IB VP . It worked out and took some time to travel and reset. That said, I wouldn’t recommend it in the current market. It’s a bit of a crap shoot landing at a startup backed by a tier 1 VC unless you have a network in place within tech and the paycut is tough to justify if it isn’t a startup with tier 1 funding. I’m all for taking a big swing but it’s a red flag if you are unemployed so I’d try to negotiate some time off between jobs rather than make the leap first.
Please keep in my job switch experience was a year ago, so I think the market was a touch better than it appears today. That being said, it sounds that similar to you, after paying off all my loans and building a rainy day fund, I realized I didn't want to continue the "high-finance" climb either. After I put in my notice, I made versions of my resume for PC/PE, FP&A, & Corp Development since I wasn't 100% married to any path and put in about an hour of effort recruiting a day. After somewhere in the neighborhood of 100-150 applications, a dozen phone chats, I ended up with LMM PC Associate & and Senior Analyst FP&A offers in a T2 city about 2 weeks after my last day (6 weeks total recruiting time). I ultimately chose FP&A for the WLB (also the higher TC for the PC role in my opinion wasn't enough to be worth the would-be 30min commute). Those extra 30-35hrs in the week I got back are now used on golf / cooking / side income hustles.
Based on other posts, maybe I got lucky - I was also targeting only that specific city, which is actively growing so while it's no NYC, there were a decent # of opportunities with less competition. Employers/recruiters outside of the IB/PE/PC world seemed to be really receptive to "I'm a hard worker, I just value having my own time as well."
All in all, would do again, just be able to afford living expenses for a while if things drag out.
Was the LMM PC role direct lending? Surprised that the FP&A role was higher TC. From what I’ve seen LMM PC should get around $225k TC in a T2 city for As1.
Hey - Apologies if I was unclear, I meant the PC job had a higher TC, but the amount higher relative to the TC of the FP&A job, wasn't worth the long commute for me. My expected 1st year TC was definitely lower than $225k (~160-185ish), so maybe I'm just a low data point on that front haha
Quit my last firm as an ASO without anything lined up. Although I took a big hit on comp, it did end up working out and was able to secure a remote role after being unemployed for months.
This job market is the worst I've seen since COVID. I know a few others in my network that are still unemployed after a year even with several years of IB experience..
how long did it take you to find another role
Like 7ish. Granted things basically froze after the tariffs were announced
Not too well, quit like 2 years ago bouncing around between contract work since then. Not been going well.
I did something like this, and managed to get a solid MM buyside role after about 6 months and not accepting my A2A offer.
I definitely underestimated how much harder it was going to be recruiting without a job, and I got ghosted by some head hunters the moment the found out I quit.
That said, it wasn’t impossible and I did manage 5 superdays, and 2 offers, but it required more senior-level references from my bank than I thought they’d ask for.
I wouldn’t do it again though.
Edit: I should add that I was recruiting for buy side roles, which is definitely a tougher story to sell after leaving IB with nothing lined up as it indicates you get burnt out quickly, etc. I think this story is much easier to sell for corp roles
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