Failing upwards

How long have you seen someone able to snake their way from firm to firm continually failing upwards? We recently let an associate go who got a senior associate gig at a very respectable sponsor. Our seniors instructed us to give good references so as “not to ruin someone’s career” and we similarly got stellar references on the associate when we hired. This person also jumped between banks prior to us hiring. Curious how high you’ve seen people make it using this strategy?

5 Comments
 

Incompetent director in our team has changed banks at every level of seniority to get promoted (An -> Aso -> VP -> Director). I am sure this was more achievable as the market was relatively healthy the last 10yrs. 

Think people can make it quite high and consistently fail upwards if they are nice and work hard, as no one will hold a grudge or tank a reference if you have those elements EVEN if you weren't great at your job.   

 

I've only seen it done a few times, but the employee is typically at a fund for a few years in a particular role and gets the bump after lateraling (i.e. sr associate who is 'stuck' at a shop and gets hired as a VP elsewhere).  I've never seen someone fired / let go and land a better gig

 

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