Did two years of banking and at an UMM PE fund.
Not interested in investing or anything like that, just want a job with decent hours and some pay.
How did people who quit before their 2 line something up? Just want to know how so I can do it and what to expect.
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Ignore title. Been in your position. Currently about 9-10 YOE.
Similar mindset as well. After a few years, I felt like finance wasn't that interesting anymore. Nor investing. Most deals follow a cookie cutter pattern. There are occasional nuances but those annoy me more than excite me (i.e., restructuring around a difficult carve-out etc.)
I did 2.5 in Banking and 2.5 in MF PE. Didn't want to do MBA to continue the grind.
If you only care about pay and hours (that is ~90% of the equation for me as well), you can try VC. Hours are way better, but there are a lot of zombie funds so you gotta be careful on what firm you choose.
Other than that, I think mid-market private credit should also have decent hours (11-12 hours per day, no weekends). I would even go a step further that certain product teams (PCA) in banks would have decent $/hour also.
Then, there's also always F500 CorpDev. Heck, you could even consider going into an IR role, those are pretty cushy.
Thanks - if you don’t mind me asking, how did you line up your exit? Just want to know and what your process was like to understand how to do mine
Don't quit without a job. Especially if your fund is a brand name PE. Helps recruiting by miles.
This was back in 2021-2022 though so not sure if directly applicable for you. I probably interviewed at like ~12 places back then, including pension funds, private credit, growth equity/VC and FOFs even. 8-9 of those were through headhunters, 2 were through my personal network and 1 was actually the firm reached out to me through Linkedin.
For starters, maybe hit up headhunters and spread your net wide to see what's available in the market. I think you can be candid that you want something with more "manageable" hours that can leverage your prior experience (quote some family reason I guess, don't want to give the impression that you're lazy). The fact that you say you want a role that can leverage your prior experience should give them the idea of what sort of comp range you want.
PCA at some banks (esp top practices) is actually as sweaty if not more sweaty than M&A, so be careful - MM PCA could be better but it’s a lot of shit assets / zombie funds that EVR/PJT won’t touch
Yeah I think this is fair but from what I can see the UBS guys are pretty chill. Product teams in banks can be decent hours depending on bank and team.
Mind detailing a bit on why you are exiting? Are you burnt out, jobs too stressful, etc? I am in your exact same boat so want to hear from a fellow peer.
In terms of lining the exit, I just recruited on linkedin and was applying for strategic finance associate roles. I found a role that paid well and luckily got the offer. They asked about a start date. My bonus for my firm was paid out in June and I got the corporate offer in April. I simply just said can I please have my start date be mid June, she said she would ask the team and get back to me, and then said they said that is perfectly fine. Got my bonus and finished my 2 years and left and had my exit lined up perfectly. Bit more simple than you think. Also jobs will tend to be ok with it as you are usually coming in solo and not as like an associate / analyst class where there is a defined timeline / start date.
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