Recently Hired by Firm Going Bankrupt
Hi Everyone,
I'm a recent graduate (only 3 summer internships) and I recently transitioned into the PE industry. After working 2 months at my current firm; it appears the ship is sinking. A large amount employees with 1-2 yrs experience have left or are leaving.
What would you do in this situation? With only 2 months of experience and no other full-time experience (non-internship) my resume isn't very strong.
Should I stay until the ship sinks? That way when I look for a new job, I have a legitimate excuse as to why I left (i.e. they are bankrupt). Otherwise, if I try to leave now I look like a) Extreme Job Hopper b) Someone that couldn't perform.
Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Stay at your job until you find a new job or the company closes.
Tough situation: you don't want to out the firm so that everyone knows they're going under but it's a completely legit reason to be looking for another job. Start networking hard and if worst comes to worst, say you're not sure of the stability of your current firm.
You gotta look out for yourself first, especially if someone hired you and are going under-pretty shitty on their part. Are you certain they are or are people just leaving for better opportunities? As someone who's been in PE in more senior positions for years, and been involved with portfolio companies that have hit or grazed bk, it's not like it comes out of nowhere. Assuming recent grad means this year, why would they even hire you? Delusional Managing Partner?
Right, I just graduated in April. This is my first full-time job, so please pardon if my next questions come across as amateur:
To land this first job, I networked with almost everyone in my market. As with any new grad the results were mixed, and I definitely made a name for myself , "as persistent / direct", in some circles. Which makes me worried about networking hard so quickly. I've added every person I spoke with to my linkedin. And they have all seen me update my profile when I landed this full-time job. If I network hard again, people will definitely question be sceptical.
Reach out to recruiters but I don't know how useful they're going to be because they typically want candidates with a little more experience but it never hurts. And reach out to people that you connected with more than just through a quick call or a 20 minute coffee and say the stability of the firm line. You never want to throw someone under the bus but hiring you knowing they weren't financially solvent was pretty shitty to you on their part.
I'm guessing you're not in NYC (because networking with everyone in NYC would be pretty freaking impressive...) so you may want to broaden your geographic scope to include NYC and other cities. And if you're are dead set on staying in a non-NYC city (and to a lesser extent SF, Boston or Chicago, although even in those cities PE funds are limited) you may also have to broaden your search beyond PE and try for other areas of finance.
I really am curious though-why do you think they hired you if they weren't doing well? Did a deal absolutely blow up on them or did they lose a big lawsuit? Or, like I said was it a delusional partner?
if company files for chap 11 protection, there is some hope, management will retain control and the company will continue operations, management will negotiate a plan of reorganization with creditors and the company might survive debt, even if they let you go you will receive payment and severance packages because you have priority of payment if company files for chap 7, all assets will be liquidated including you, you have no hope here, no other choice than leave as soon as possible
Is this a PE fund? It seems strange that they would hire you if they were on the verge of going under, unless there was some unforeseen litigation exposure.
I'd first have a candid conversation with the partner(s) who hired you into this situation to find out what is really going on. Some of them might be helpful in making introductions to their peers if they have any moral culpability for doing this to you. Dingdong is spot on in his advice in seeking the next gig in my view.
I find it hard to believe a PE company can go bankrupt. Individual portfolio companies yes. The holding company/GP? Unlikely.
Ask the people who left why they left.
Are you sure that the firm is going bankrupt rather than just natural process of some people moving on?
Play both side: look for a job elsewhere, but don't leave you're current job until you find your next role
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