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Currently living this right now. I've already made 2 moves (banking lateral and moving to PE) and it's literally been the same thing every single time. Contemplating making another move at this point but I'm scared it's just going to make me worse off.
Went from healthy sh*t to diarrhea. Time to build my fiber back up and get out.
This fear is currently keeping me from switching jobs. Currently in corp dev. and it irritates the shit out of me on a daily basis. I am debating switching to corp dev in another industry but I am pretty sure another corp dev role will also irritate the shit out of me with the added drawback of being in a hybrid or in-office environment (currently remote). So I will probably stay put and be irritated until I retire in 35 years.
thinking about making this pivot and was wondering what specifically about your job irks you vs. your previous roles (if you've worked in finance)?
I would caveat that I have a short fuse in general and just overall dislike 'corporate' jobs and all the bureaucratic horseshit that goes along with them.
A few things about my job specifically, we have one director who has no business being in the role i.e. had no prior deal experience before joining the team (they came from our corp. strat team to replace someone who left my team) and another director who is the most checked out person I have ever seen. So I am a Sr. Manager and when I am staffed on deals with one of these 2 as deal lead well then I basically have do everything while they make at least 2x my comp.
On corp dev in general, we have about 10 business units. Each of these makes an acquisition every three years maybe. And every 3 years basically the whole team in the BU has left the company and been replaced by a new person. So essentially every acquisition we have a new BU team who we have to teach how to do business diligence / overall process work. I would have become a professor if this is what I wanted to do with my time. We have continuity of corporate level people who handle diligence for every deal for probably half of our functions which is nice and they are mostly competent. However all the business unit and corporate people have day jobs that have nothing to do with acquisitions so none of them really give a shit about doing acquisitions, the only person who wants to do a deal is the business unit GMs so they can have a larger P&L. So the whole diligence team is largely apathetic throughout the whole process and you have to pull teeth to get anything done and also need to make sure these maybe 10-12 apathetic functional diligence teams are all on the same page at all times regarding risks / timing / integration plans. Then there is the bureaucracy of getting anything approved. In corporate America most people operate in a cover your ass type mindset. No one wants to lose their cushy job so everything must be diligenced to death and there's never ending approval hurdles to jump through.
So in general compared to other finance roles I've had, I guess the bureaucracy and massive teams I have to work with are aggravating. Also I just don't give a fuck about most of the diligence that we have to do. When I was in college studying finance, never in a million years did I think I'd have multiple calls in one week about fucking asbestos. I don't give a fuck how much asbestos a factory has in the ceiling (this is probably specific to industrial corp dev).
The first 3 months in any new job are always great. Hopefully though, you have the experience of working with some cool ass people. That is actually what makes work fun/enjoyable/"different".
Otherwise, you can grind solo anywhere and it will always feel similar since, everywhere you go, there you are.
Oh yes. I was in a rotation program in an investment bank, that rotated me through the APAC region while also rotating through PE, ECM, equity research, and S&T. I left early to join a Chinese PE fund that we grew to be a top 3 fund in China. But man, what a disaster for my career. The grass was definitely not greener.
While that may true to some extent, I think shifting your lens into "the grass here is withering and it's dragging me along into its certain death" may give you the perspective you need instead of going back and forth wondering if the grass is greener on the other side.
Before looking into other places, you need to reflect on what you place the most importance at in life: is it prestigious positions? higher salary? work-life balance? positive coworkers?
There are always bad bosses, coworkers, jobs, etc. everywhere, but whether it's worth jumping ship for depends on what you can and cannot tolerate. That's why how appealing the grass everywhere truly depends on what you seek from your career.
I quit a very comfortable and solid paying lifestyle job for one worth a bit more money and probably better growth opportunities, but have come to hate it - and have learned that sometimes you shouldnt try to be happier than happy.
What got me to make the switch was the pay difference, and someone telling me that staying put would basically be the same as paying your company that difference in salary to stay there. While this is true and not a terrible way of looking at things. Im naturally frugal/FIRE type at heart. So getting paid more results to virtually no lifestyle benefits at all except for growing brokerage account, which is just numbers on a digital screen end of the day.
Long story short after this bonus season clears am going to try to get gig at old firm. Wont take a pay cut, but would probably do a lateral move.
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