Associate Third Year / Next Steps
Recently finished 1st year in a tech PE fund and have been offered a third year as an associate with potential path to promo down the line (2 year program with 1 year extension for strong performance).
Issue is that I strongly dislike PE and cannot imagine myself staying. I have held off on recruiting as I wanted to focus on doing a great job my first year. I am leaning towards COS as my next stop and have to decide on the third year by tomorrow.
I know the logical answer is to just accept and recruit as needed, but I feel strongly compelled to just decline. Has anyone been in a similar spot? Also - any insight on lead time for finding a quality COS role? I assume it will require a bit of networking / personal discernment to find the right seat - so likely not super quick
I was in the exact same situation. You should take it and start recruiting once you're nearing the end of your second year; recruiting is very unpredictable so having that extra year runway is valuable. While I'm sure you want to do right by your firm (as did I), turnover is a reality and not the end of the world - as long as you handle it professionally and work hard to ensure a clean hand off there's very little downside.
EDIT: your end goal is also relevant; while no firm is happy when a third year drops, going to corporate or a CoS role is a lot easier story to tell than going to a competitor.
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