Declining 2nd Round Interview? Advice Needed..
So I recently got through a first round for corporate strategy at a PE firm. When I initially caught up with the headhunter, I was mostly talking about searching for corp dev. / corp strat. roles, but for normal companies, not PE. However, this came up and the headhunter pushed me to give it a shot and I didn't want to be difficult, so I said sure why not...
I got the first round model test which was the most basic model test ever, so I passed it easily....was honestly expecting to fail...now I have a 2nd round coming up soon for an interview with a couple existing associates and I have a strong feeling I'm going to get absolutely murdered.
Thing is I'm a generalist M&A banker that's never opened a FIG financial statement in my life, nor do I really understand anything about PE fund strategy... I don't really have time to prepare either because of live deals and also a couple of other interviews that I care much more about.
How bad is it for me to say I re-evaluated and don't want to proceed with the 2nd round?
This is the problem with pushy recruiters. The recruiter knows your situation so it shouldn’t surprise them to say you are declining politely.
Alternatively, if you can push back the second round with this fund and try to get through the the first rounds of your preferred non-PE options then you preserve some optionality.
Thanks for the reply - I would push back, but the issue is I just don't think I stand a chance here even with a whole month of preparing. The headhunters emailed me the names of the people I'd be interviewing with. All former BB IB in FIG. I don't understand anything about this industry (and I was shocked they even gave me an interview considering I have no relevant experience on my resume and I don't even work in a BB / EB).
Just don't know if it would burn bridges to tell the HH I just don't want to waste both of our time.
Edit: Turned it down. Just not worth killing myself for a role I wasn't seeking in the first place.
hey there - would love to know what ended up happening?
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