Hey everyone,
I could really use some advice – feeling pretty stuck right now.
I’m in my early 30s with 3y at MBB in Milan, and for the past 3.5y, I’ve been working at an LMM PE fund in London (€1.5b AuM). I should be promoted to VP by the end of the year.
The main issues I’m dealing with are:
- Since January, the fund shifted to a new hybrid capital strategy (raised new money), which now involves a lot of debt-like instruments. The current PE fund is fully invested (only focusing on add-ons), and there’s no new fund being raised anytime soon (portfolio isn’t doing great either). So now, I’m working on stuff I wasn’t hired for and honestly didn’t want to do. I’m trying to stay positive, thinking of it as learning something new, but it’s frustrating.
- There’s no real progress in my role. It’s just me and another associate left (3 sr associates went back to continental Europe in the last 1.5 years), so even if I get the VP title, I’m still doing junior-level work (modelling, excel, presentations) with very little exposure to networking opportunities with advisors and zero opportunities to manage junior resources (I'm always the junior). It feels like my soft skills and network are growing really slowly.
Other things to consider:
- Salary’s okay-ish but could definitely use a bump.
- 2 of the founding partners are awful—old-fashioned, always yelling, terrible to work with.
- The rest of the team is great though, and the office environment is solid.
- Work-life balance is actually decent.
Given all this, I’ve been thinking about moving to another MM fund where I can focus on PE investing again (not hybrid capital/special situations) and hopefully find a bigger, more structured environment. I’m also not looking to move back to Italy. The situation here is really hitting my motivation and confidence.
I’ve been networking with recruiters since the end of last year with pretty grim results—barely any inbounds and not much luck. I took a break from the search in May because it was honestly getting depressing, but I’m thinking about getting back to it now.
Would love to hear your thoughts on:
- How the job market in London is for someone with my profile (I can’t tell if it’s the market or me).
- What you think of my situation—should I muddle through or get out asap?
- Any advice, good or bad, is appreciated!
Cheers!
Sorry to hear man, ignore title I'm in PE as well in LMM, but more junior and joined recently from sell-side. I can't help much but curious to hear what feedback you're getting from recruiters? Are you getting interviews or you're getting stuff you're not interested in, or getting nothing. You sound like you have a good profile, speak Italian, MBB, PE with internal promotion. Sounds like its more the market. Maybe because I'm biased and have more interest in investing across the cap structure but I would take it as a positive opportunity to develop an additional skillset but I understand that might be hard if you really can't get excited about debt. If you've been dealing with these founders for a while, sounds like you can cope and life is not too bad from the other things you mention. I think the VP promote will only help your chances even if its too move back to being associate/snr assoc at a bigger fund
Keep in mind that this was before the summer. The most common feedbacks were: i) market is down, particularly for mid-seniority positions, and ii) funds are now looking for very specific profiles (e.g., German speakers, specific industry backgrounds). They probably proposed only a couple of roles, mostly in newly raised funds, which I declined (not aligned with what I was looking for).
Regarding hybrid capital, I agree that it might be useful and interesting (up to a point for me). I'm trying to focus on its advantages. However, when you're hired into a PE fund and, three years later, you find yourself solely investing in hybrid capital, it's not quite what I had in mind.
London market is completely dog shit last year and currently - definitely factor that into your calcs…
+1 on this one
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