Advice

I am currently working at a special sits fund as an analyst. I am considering moving to a top RX shop (PJT, Evercore, HL, LZ, Moelis, PWP), but am a bit conflicted.

On the one hand, I work on something that is somewhat niche for most of my time and I feel as if working on for another year will not be beneficial to my career. I have hit the point of stagnation largely from a learning perspective. I have learned corporate credit through it, but do zero modeling and am worried that I will become an associate and realize I just did not get adequate modeling experience, etc. I also think that if I decide to do PE/HF again rather than credit, it will give me better opportunities just because of how associate recruiting is structured (eg: better to be in IB than Bain Cap Credit for MF PE). I do realize I can learn a lot of modeling on my own, but think works reps will be best. 

On the other hand, my boss is very dependent on me and gave me an opportunity in my life. My group is very small and so there will be real consequences to the group if I left. My current shop has terrific WLB (50-70 hours) and probably a 25% haircut to last year's analyst IB record pay, but in line with traditional IB pay (eg: other years). Long-term pay is not as good as other places, but that's all relative. However, if I were to stay over 3 years - my earnings differential between 2 years of IB and MF PE would be ~$250K so real money especially given down market. People are nice as well. Culture is great. My main focus is on the experience/setting me up for long term success and how that gives me an opportunity to move to MF PE/HF (and if i am interest). I have worked there for just a little over a 1 year but they generally want people to be there a min of 2 years. When I spoke with headhunters, it seemed that there was some resistance to showing me buyout opportunities for the associate level - unclear as to why given my broader background but largely a function that I do mostly credit.  

Basically feel a bit bad about leaving after a year as opposed to in another 6 months?

Really appreciate that advice.