Anyone having a tough time leaving?

In my 2nd year as an associate (post MBA) at top 5 bulge. Have been looking at director level corp dev / strategy roles and haven't been getting any bites. Very few interview invites. Anyone have any advice? Are other people experiencing this in the current market? 

For my 2 years and out-type associates, did it take a while before you landed your exit opp? Anyone have any good recruiters (no PE-focused please)?

8 Comments
 

Making the move now from PE to Corp Dev and agree with some of the above that director roles are tough right now.

Each company can have a bit of differences with how they give out titles, but a lot of times I’ve seen director be for 10+ years of experience and oftentimes direct experience in that industry.

I’m personally making the move where I would still have an associate title, but was also in the process for a manager role (which would have still been the most junior role on that team or 2nd most junior level, so it’s not always clear by level). Would also recommend going outside of HHs for these roles. Each one I looked at came from outside a HH (LinkedIn, indeed, etc.) which seemed wild to me, but that’s what I’ve been seeing lately at least at a junior level

 

Still an old title, but was previously in PE after leaving banking. Seeing comp from about 85k for the lowest salary (even they knew that was too low but that was all they could offer) as an associate up to about 140k salary for a manager. Bonus / variable comp as well also ranged from about 5-10% bonus to a blend of an annual bonus of 10k + some LTIC and potential other equity programs (signed somewhere else before getting any more details on the LTIC program at the other firm).

 

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