Dealing with failure - don't know what to do now

Hi all, 

Just could do with some advice, if possible. Did pretty well at a IB boutique in London (early promotion to associate, total of 4 years  but got tired of the grind with banking and made a move to a lower MM regional PE house. 

Got absolutely shredded and torn apart (no guidance, structure) - no one there has existing PE experience so it was almost just flying blind and trying to make sense of it. It was also advertised within a certain sector niche which is my specialty but as soon as I arrived on day 1 - I was told this was not true and the fund was fully generalist. Within 6 months, I was fired for being "too quiet" (ironically, in banking, I was always commended for being extremely confident and great with clients. 

Was fired a couple of months ago but the job market is atrocious and I've been told to sit tight by recruiters. Have scheduled 15 calls with PE directors / partners but my confidence has been slowly eroded. Also had a corp. dev role and was given a verbal offer but they undertook backchannel references and used a Associate & Partner who I didn't get along well with - and the offer was rescinded. 

I really want to back myself and sit tight for the PE processes that are going to happen in September but: 

i) How much of a stain is it on my cv? (I think my PE experience was absolutely unique and recruiters have mentioned to me that is not a normal shop - although I did get deal experience)

ii) When do I throw in the towel and accept that I probably should go back to banking?

Just in a tough spot - was extremely confident a year ago and now I'm a shell of the person I was and just need advice on how to approach this. 

1 Comments
 

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