Leaving a job within a few months of starting

Hi all - I have an offer for a corporate finance role coming from an IB analyst background. I'm honestly not excited about the role, but figure something is better than nothing considering I was laid off a few months ago. How big of a deal would it be to accept this, start the job, and leave in a few months once I find something else? This company wants me to start towards the end of May, so I can't really just accept and renege before starting.

Really not sure how to play this situation. I have 3 other processes for traditional buyside I am going to try to accelerate, but not sure how that will go.

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Hey man - similar situation to you. Accepted a corporate role that I wasn't excited about to pay the bills and give me some cover while looking elsewhere.

The way I'm approaching it is to keep applying and leave it off the resume. If I don't find something in 6 months then I'll add it on at that point. If I find something before 6-9 months then I'll just take it off my resume permanently and replace it with the new gig.

This is probably not a best practice, but just sharing my experience for perspective.

Good luck and I hope you find a role that you're really excited about.

 

Updates? What ended up happening? Anything you would’ve done differently?

 

Original commenter here - I couldn't find anything better so I've been stuck in that job for ~2 years. I eventually updated my LinkedIn and resume after 9 months . Currently in a corp dev role that has since morphed into 100% "strategy" work - no deal flow and haven't looked at anything seriously in my 2 years here. 

Market seems to be horrible so I haven't managed to find any decent m&a opportunities. Tried recruiting for other corp dev jobs but don't have strong enough prior m&a experience to make the jump. I'm assuming that I am stuck until I get an MBA, after which I'll try to go go back to IB to get more deal reps or look for corp dev teams that are receptive to hiring directly out of MBA.

It's not all bad. I make ~$170k all-in and work 20-40 hours a week. I've worked a handful of weekends in the past 2 years and I'm fully remote with unlimited time off. So one could say I'm content with being in a dead end career for the time being until I get my MBA.

 

OP here. Ended up accelerating one of my processes and went to a small family office doing PE co invest. Think brand / exit optionality is very lacking but ratio of pay to hours is solid. Great culture and interesting work. Sometimes wonder if I should’ve tried to go to another bank or kept recruiting for buy side roles with better brand but grass is always greener

 

OP, glad you landed on your feet.

Am currently in the same situation. An2 was let go of, unemployed for a few months, and now doing corp dev for a firm in my former coverage area.

The hours (~20-30/week) are really good for the pay (same base as banking but lower bonus) and I like my new team more. I am 2 months in and I feel like I am not learning as much as in my previous role and will lose out on the compounding comp progression of high finance.

Not sure how to proceed here. Am applying to IB roles but not getting much traction.

Any advice / anything you would’ve done differently looking back?

 

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