Feeling lost, do I have no choice but give up?

When I graduated college, my dream was to climb the ladder of a PE/GE shop or hedge fund and I told myself I had the tenacity to do it. I had always worked hard and was used to having a ton of things on my plate. After chasing that for years, I've come up against 2 challenges. The first is that although the work is interesting, the demands of this job make me miserable and I (unfortunately?) value time with loved ones. The second is that I have not been able to get a new gig despite trying hard for the last few months. 

I did the standard BB IB stint, moved to investing, but mistakenly switched half way to a bad first time fund as the market was on its way down. I unfortunately haven't done any huge significant deals, as in deals that look good, and the job market is terrible now. So I'm in a position where I can't seem to get a new investing job, I can't stay at my current one because I don't think the fund will survive, and this kind of finance experience is only useful for a handful of companies.

Part of me wants to say fk it, maybe time to just take some random corp dev role and call it a day. While I hate victim mentality, I do feel like I am being backed into a corner and I'm giving up. I am deeply disappointed at myself for not being able to hack it. Looking for advice, anyone else have this crisis?

3 Comments
 
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Was in this position 9 months ago. Went to a small niche fund after banking with a lot of upside - unfortunately market turned and fund is getting crushed. Ended up getting laid off and honestly felt like a blessing even with the recruiting market being incredibly tough right now. Think through how you can position your experience better in interviews so that it’s more applicable. Would just put your head down and keep at it until you find something new. May seem a bit dark right now but there will be a light at the end of the tunnel if you can power through it

Go try to get away for a week or whatever you need to do to clear your head and reset before you jump back in

 

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