Want out - next steps
Hoping to get some perspective from people who’ve made a similar move.
My background is 2 years in IB and 3 years at a HF. Over the last few months I’ve realised that money isn't my primary focus anymore (ironic I know, given I’ve spent the last 5+ years of my life chasing it), and there are a couple things in my personal life I need to prioritize.
Current situation: doing 55–60 hours/week making $400–500K, want to work 40 hours/week or less (ideally remote but I know it's a stretch) and I’d be happy making >=$100K; want to keep the door open to an MBA in a couple of years. Don't care about what I'm doing at all as long as it meets the criteria above (work has absolutely been deprioritised in my head). Any ideas for roles that fit these criterias and my experience? Thanks in advance.
Couple pieces of advice..
I second the startups but obviously really depends on the firm as we all know. I have some colleagues who pivoted into the data or service provider side of things that enjoyed it and it pays what you outlined above. A lot of them work remotely too. If you did IB maybe you could try and break into PM (product manager) at FAANG (not easiest job to get but possible).
Thanks for your responses guys. My fund has done very well both inception-to-date and YTD, and we are well above our HWM - this decision is completely driven by personal views on needing to prioritise areas of my life that are currently lacking (spending more time with family and friends is #1 - my parents are getting old and I won't be able to do as many activities with them in a few years).
Startups are a good idea, thanks for the suggestion - agreed the hours might be drastically different between different firms, so have to DD the opportunity. However, I'm not sure I'll be plug-and-lay at a startup and I really don't want to spend any energy getting up the learning curve - like I said, work has absolutely been deprioritised in my head.
Corp Dev I'm more sceptical about - we all know how hours can get once a deal really heats up, and I don't ever want hours to go above 40 hours/week in my next role.
Some ideas I came up with: 1) government financial regulator / institution (Fed / SEC / IFC / DFC / etc.); 2) treasury / FP&A at a corporate; 3) long-only (unsure if this is >50 hours/week); 4) investment consulting (Cambridge / Mercer) - I know none of these roles (other than the LO) are "sexy" but like I said I don't care about anything else other than working 40 hours/week or less and maximising MBA outcomes.
If you care about maximizing MBA outcomes shouldn't you pursue it now right after your hf gig? if you really just wanted a low pay low stress 40-hr/wk job, why go after mba at all?
It's entirely driven by my personal situation, but in summary the point of an MBA would be to get back into a high-paying/serious role, and if I were to apply to one right now I would be sucked back into the recruiting grind while potentially living in a different location vs where my family/friends are:
Since I work in LO -- at most places where you'd want to be (i.e. not shrinking underperformers), you should expect 50-55hrs per week. Some will be closer to 60-65hrs (these will either be some of the elite performers or conversely, the toxic decaying cultures), that's something you'll have to diligence
I'm at one of the former shops, life is pretty good here. There are some roles in LO at the 40-45hrs per week area, but few of these are places you'll actually want to be at (and when AUM shrinks sufficiently, you will not really have a choice anyway)
The other issue in terms of spending more time with friends & fam is it's very location dependent and LO seats may be rare in lot of locations. If NYC -- on one hand, lot of LO's (though surprisingly most of the good LO's are outside NYC area). On the other hand, the uniquely hardworking NYC culture has permeated those shops and will drag the hours upwards to the 55-65hr range very often.
There are random good LOs in that 50hr per week range in lots of odd locations, but the highest density will be in Boston or LA are mostly. Some in NJ (but you've got to watch out for the hours given your preference)
go work for a startup or try and get in to one of the labs better if it is a frontier lab. or just stick it out, is it really that bad?
Thanks for the suggestions - I'm still in the process of making a final assessment (currently experimenting with how far I can push optimising my time), but for my energy levels / efficiency (you might be higher energy levels / more efficient), yes working 55-60 intense hours leaves very little free time / energy to dedicate to my personal life. But as I said, experimenting for 1-2 months, if I can manage to stay in my role while making time for my personal life - that would be the ideal situation, I really do love my job but not at the cost of ignoring my family.
I recently read the book called The Pathless Path and thought it could be helpful for you in your situation.
https://pathlesspath.com/
I had to walk away to take care of a parent. So i understand where youre coming from. Happy to hop on a call to discuss.
Can def hit the $100k mark in a remote/ consulting capacity with startups (crypto, AI, fintech) and hedge funds. Most important thing is to get to know people in the ecosystem before you leave. This becomes your parachute.
Thank you very much for offering to speak - going to think through if I would like to remain anonymous and will PM you if not. Thanks also for the suggestions on the startups / hedge fund consulting - need to research how plug and play I will be in those roles / how they will look on the MBA application (at the risk of seeming lazy I want to minimise time put into my next role, want to just start and kill it with minimal getting up the learning curve).
All good, feel free to DM as well.
I can't claim it will look great in an MBA application down the line. Maybe if it lines up with your story, overcoming adversity and giving back to the people that matter etc, in their time of need, it could tweak the optics. Or people don't care.
But on the other hand, the main advice I would offer is to reach out to people, and be candid. Many have a heart and want to help. And it could open a lot of doors one wouldn't expect.
As for capacity to add value, that's mostly personal. If you have expertise in a niche area, many firms become flexible. SWFs and single managers are far more flexible than say a place like Citadel. But it does happen. You can also be opportunistic, there's many VC backed startups building agentic finance products, and they would value having someone with your experience. You can also look into bizdev, sales, strategy etc at such places. And as many have discussed, there's IR type stuff. You are effectively part of the 'buyside whisper'. But such roles aren't very flexible if that's something that you're looking for.
Lots of corporate roles that are 40 hrs. Since you’re in HF, maybe IR is a good choice? Although I imagine that gets more hectic during earnings season, so maybe not quite as chill as I’m thinking
Thanks, yes IR is on my list of possible roles to look at - agreed, need to diligence how high the hours go during earnings / strategic announcements.
FYI since you are open to LO AM, cap group has a NY office and it’s expanding. Both equities and FI teams have presence here and they’ve actually hired former hedge fund analysts recently. Overall hours/intensity should be much more manageable compared to HFs.
you come across as extremely mature and self aware - wishing you success on your future endeavors
Thanks all for your responses, have replied / SB'd as necessary - this forum has been a great help for me throughout the years and continues to be so today. Where I'm at right now is I'm trying to optimise my time outside of work to maximize time spent with family / friends (running this experiment for a 1-2 months) - if I am able to dedicate the number of hours I want to dedicate to them while working my current job - perfect.
If I'm not able to make the time I need for my personal life, I've narrowed it down to down to corporate treasury and FP&A roles, rationale:
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