From Senior Associate to VP
For those of you that have gotten the promotion from Senior Associate to VP, what were some of the key factors you believe contributed to your promotion? Additionally, if you were part of a great associate pool and you were the one that made it up, what were the key differentiators between you and the other associate(s) that did not make it (assuming they were asked to leave).
There's some imposter syndrome kicking in, as it relates to doing the other part of the job. The analytical stuff is fine; however, the other area that i see the strong VPs excel at, proprietary deal sourcing, managing a process from end-to-end is something i cannot say I am 100% comfortable with or have done. How did you set yourself up in that regard? Sometimes i feel like i should be doing more. Maybe I'm just in my head.
bump, would love to hear some thoughts on this.
Being a Senior Associate is such a shitty position. You’re expected to do the model and all of the data crunching analysis while showing you can “play up” by managing the process. Meanwhile the VP that the firm hires out of business school has only 2 years of Associate experience (compared to a Senior Associate that has 2-4), but gets a free pass from all the day to day analytical work b/c they have the VP title. So at the end of the day, no shit they are going to be better prepared to lead calls and talk intelligently to IC about the deal because they have their Associates do all the analytical work. Such a double standard for what it takes for PE firms to hire VPs out of business school (couple of interviews and case studies) vs. getting promoted from within. Just my 2 cents as a disgruntled Senior Associate that wished they went to business school.
Once you get the VP promote i think you'll be happy for the extra cash + reps under your belt
Easier said than done. A lot of these firms still have an implicit bias toward MBA grads vs. internal promotes. I've seen internal politics screw over senior associate promotes far more often than considerably less capable VPs at my firm because the latter group tends to be older and more "polished" in the eyes of the senior folks - often ends up coming across that way because of the points brought up above. They manage to get shielded from the analytical work a lot more and can focus on process management and spending time reading for hours while senior associates somehow get expected to play down and play up simultaneously.
I have definitely preferred working under the internal senior associate promotes than the new HBS, GSB, and Wharton grads. Limited sample size though. Maybe I'm just at the wrong firm lmao.
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