Taking Experience Gap for the Right Role
At a VP level, if you're moving on from your current fund, is it better to take an offer you're not as excited about or take an experience gap (let's say 3-6 months) for the right role? Personally have been looking for 6+ months and while seeing signs of life, in this market it's hard to say when the right opportunity will come along. I will be running out of my "find something" time shortly. My concern is given how incredibly competitive things seem to be for the handful of roles out there, does being unemployed during that experience gap essentially make you dead on arrival for consideration?
Saw a few comments under a separate thread but wanted to make a standalone post as I imagine others may be thinking through similar things based on where we are in the year.
Bump. Same issue. Strong background with closed deal reps, but lateral market seems dead and worried I'll have to manage 3-4 months of unemployment.
What are your backgrounds and what are you targeting?
MF VP PE in NYC, targeting high quality MM (2-3B+ fund size) to MF. Generalist with closed deal experience in industrials and healthcare. Only looking at NYC roles.
Crossover Fund VP in SF. Spent 3 years at a MF and 2 years at T1 Bank prior to that. Focused on NYC / SF roles - open minded to stage but feel like traditional buyout will be tough given the pivot to minority. Targeting high quality, established fund ($1B+) or above.
Solid. If I were you, I wouldn't lower my standards. If you don't have a huge burn and have some savings, gap is probably fine. Like Compbanker mentioned, you can spin it as non-compete. Or more believably, most industry participants understand it's a slow market right now for laterals.
Contrary to everyone else here, I'd recommend taking the offer you have. The fundraising environment is extremely bleak and there is a massive glut of talent at the senior associate / VP level, so there isn't much reason for firms to hire at that level or they can be extraordinarily picky about who they want to hire (even at the mm / lmm level). I am generally of the view that now is the time to focus on surviving in private equity and riding out this storm until market conditions improve or otherwise risk being ejected from the industry generally.
What you might anticipate being a 3-6 month break could easily turn into something much longer than that and, at that point, your negotiating leverage is basically gone because you don't have a credible alternative of your current role to fall back on.
To be clear, I don't have another role, this is more hypothetical. I.e. do I start lowering my standards to LMM (which might negatively signal the headhunters) or take the first offer I get, or be willing to spend 3-6 months unemployed.
Could you stay at your current firm while you’re searching for your next gig? If that’s an option, then I think you should keep having a high bar. If not, I’d take whatever you can get and lateral again in 1-2 years.
There are a few big problems in the market right now in my opinion:
Extremely bleak is an overstatement. Just today, Cortec and Avista announced closed funds higher than their previous funds. New fund closings are being announced at a healthy rate. Yes, below the high watermarks of 2020-2021 but still healthy. Add to that the amount of dry powder that needs to be deployed. Even in 2023, funds were raising new capital. There were instances of larger cap funds not reaching their targets but the macro environment at that time was also worse than it is now. But more importantly, announced fund closings is actually a lagging indicator. Try looking forward.
I've been seeing similar fundraise milestones and it has improved my outlook on 2024, but I have not yet seen the impact on SrA/VP lateral hiring markets entirely yet. And as someone who has been looking for 12 months, the market is still broadly speaking, bleak. I have been told that these funds have kicked off more and more associate searches though, so my hope is they continue upward after filling basic roles.
12 months? Wow. What's your background/have you been employed the entire time?
Out of curiosity, what is driving your decision to leave your current firm?
Culture + vertical coverage
I would go against the grain here and suggest you take an offer if you get it - while the market seems to have improved relative to the last ~15 months... the mid-level landscape lags relative to juniors. I left my prior firm just about 12 months ago now, anticipating a similar 3-6 months gap period while I looked. 12 months in, and very minimal headhunter outreach or opportunities in general, I wouldn't wish it on my worst enemy. The mental stressors are astronomic and all-encompassing.
Current indicators do provide hope though, so it's going to be a test on your risk tolerance. Are you comfortable with 6-12 months? If so, then wait it out. If not, take a decent role elsewhere. 2 cents.
Thanks for the feedback, and sorry you're going through this. Would you mind sharing some seniority / background as reference?
Yea, it hasn't been the most fun, but what can you do when market presses back? FWIW, I was advised by a mentor that if I left, I should be prepare for a longer timeline at this stage in my career.
Seniority is VP level with a background of 2 years IB + 6 years PE, all mid-market tech, brand names on resume both school & work.
Depressing didn't cover it at times, lol. But when I hear qualified MBAs from top schools are also struggling post graduation, that megafund folks aren't even getting a ton of looks, it makes me feel a bit better about the past ~9 months.
Bumping this for any other opinions ^^
^bump
Unfortunately - real discussion sort of died once it got moved into the Job forum. Would love additional perspectives as well.
Bumping, same situation
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