Getting PE Offer just for leverage to get other offers?

I am interviewing for a fund and I am almost at the offer stage, however I do not want to work for this fund given my friend works here and it is sweatier than my bank. I have 2 other processes in early stages that I want much more (smaller funds in chiller cities and cooler people); is it bad to draw out this process just to use it against those ones so I can hopefully get a PE offer that I actually want that won't involve working from 9am to midnight 6 days a week?

3 Comments
 

It's not bad but it would likely work against your interests - telling smaller funds you're all-in on their Tier 2/3 city and being in the MM/LMM space, and then presenting an offer from a larger fund in a Tier 1 city... doesn't really inspire confidence that you are committed to the smaller funds. They may very well tell you to just take that offer since it makes you seem like a flight risk (common issue with smaller cities).

Also most funds won't accelerate if you are early in their process, giving you a final round basically is committing to you since they can't evaluate anyone else. It usually only works if you have a deadline and an upcoming final round needs to be scheduled/offer decision made to work with that.

So, I would not do this

 

Agree with guidance above. Funds don't usually like to do superdays for one candidate. It isn't efficient time-wise and can also backfire if folks struggle with the dating app paradigm of "wondering what the next candidate might look like" if they rush ahead with you singly.

You'll also burn a bridge with the recruiter if you turn down a late-stage offer/process.

I'd focus on recruiting for what you actually want and trusting your ability to prevail in a process (or using this extra time to prep accordingly to build that confidence).

 
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