Fired or Leave

If you have a sense that you will be let go/fired in next 4 - 8 weeks and do not find a new job yet would you stay until it happens to keep saving money or put in your two weeks notice? If you put in your two weeks notice you would have to repay 40k gross bonus and get the money back in tax return

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In this situation, I think there's little downside to potentially getting fired. Staying in your job until it happens while networking will give you a much better networking head start and as the above commenter mentioned, it may be the case that you don't get fired or don't get fired for a good while. And on top of that, the old adage "you need a job to get another job" still applies here. A nice severance check doesn't hurt either. 

I just see little downside to actually getting fired if you know it is coming. 

 

Definitely wait. There is absolutely no reason to take a huge hit on bonus clawback, and 4-8 weeks is enough time to get going on recruiting anyway

Also unless you are getting fired for something egregious (insider trading, sexual harassment) banks typically won't offically "fire" you since it will show up very negatively on your FINRA registration - typically they are negotiating severance for you to leave. So you can tell the next firm you got laid off or left by mutual agreement.

 

There's no reason to quit.  Even when you're fired, vast majority of the time they process it officially as though you quit.  They don't like official firings because all of those have a potential legal liability.  They'll have you sign a paper saying you resigned voluntarily, and usually there's severance or at least something of value to entice you to sign that paper.  And when other employers call them, they can't say you were fired (not that they would anyway, most firms just say what your last day was . . but now they definitely can't say you were fired if you signed a paper saying you quit).   

Can't promise that will happen, but it's what almost always happens.  So it doesn't make sense to quit early just to be able to position yourself as someone who quit.

 

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