Career advice

Currently a VP at a LMM PE Fund in a Tier 2 city. Currently investing out of Fund 1 and all indications point to Fund 2 doubling in size. Joined as a senior associate and originally from the Midwest (non-Chicago) and would like to return back to home city eventually for various reasons. Adjusting to the new city hasn’t been too great but hasn’t been bad by any means.

Did talk to current partners and they communicated that they will be “eventually okay” with me moving back to Midwest and still keep working for the firm but I don’t fully buy that. To be fair, I have done quite well and sourced 3-4 proprietary platform deals which didn’t go through for various reasons.

Obviously, there aren’t many PE firms where I’m from and I’d like to stay in PE. Trying to understand if I take my bonus (February) and quit or try to stick it out further? Any advice will be appreciated.

2 Comments
 
Most Helpful

You unfortunately have a tough call to make - career versus personal life. Here's the permutations as I see it:

  • (i) Stay with current fund in current city - sounds like you're performing well, fund has good outlook --> prioritize career track opportunity over geography
  • (ii) Stay with current fund but move to hometown/alt geography - as you can tell from your own post, being a sole satellite resource when everyone else is in a central office/location is a sub-par experience (easier to be excluded from important conversations, more often looked over for promotions, not truly viewed as a 100% team member) --> this would be prioritizing personal life/geo and maintaining a "good enough" career track here but with risk and probably ceiling on potential
  • (iii) Recruit for a fund in your preferred geography - this seems like the natural choice if you truly feel that strongly about moving back; I wouldn't leave your current gig until you actually land a role (i.e., wouldn't just take your bonus and 'hope' to find something here as it sounds like firms/spots are probably extremely limited and you have a good gig right now)
 

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