What’s next if I can’t crack the VP promotion?
Hi all,
Post-MBA associate in a highly regarded Sponsors / LevFin group about halfway through the program (ignore title).
Been having a bit of self-doubt recently about my ability to make the VP promotion down the line based on a handful of factors:
- Limited visibility / presence outside group (I.e., no real “industry” junior connections at PE firms while many of my A2A peers are always out at some industry event, or seemingly always able to call up a junior pal at another firm to chat deal flow and I have none of that yet). I wouldn’t even know how to naturally make those connections outside of the occasional networking event our bank hosts
- Associate glut / slow deal flow: have only been staffed on 2 live deals since starting (1 closed, 1 died mid-process) and nervous that I’m not getting enough end-to-end reps to qualify me for VP, especially if they’ll start thinking about promotion candidates soon. The VP / Director who I do most of my work for had significantly more deals closed when they were in my shoes, and I feel they set the standard VERY high in that respect. Meanwhile, we have a fairly large associate class competing for (currently) a limited number of live deals.
- I’m still making small mistakes that my VP / Director catch and am way overthinking those. They give me a lot of latitude / independence but I’m still embarrassed with the number of comments they’ll come back with and feel that halfway through my associate program I should be putting out almost entirely error-free work that doesn’t merit the VP going in the model or multiple rounds of comments.
On the whole, I’m just looking at the environment around me and worried I’m a step below / behind my associate peers, especially A2As. Is this feeling justified? Where would I even go if I can’t cut it? I still have time to turn things around (I hope), but my pre-MBA experience is useless. Would an allocator (whether family office, fundless sponsor etc) even want a washout with Sponsors experience? There’s no real “industry” exit given I’m in a Product group. May be way overthinking this all, but for any associates who have been in these shoes before…would love to hear.
Not the point of your post but the idea of a combined leveraged finance / sponsors group feels wild to me.
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