Has exiting IB/PE really improved your wellbeing?
Background: 5 years experience across IBD (BB), PE and private credit (brand name shops). My buy-side moves were driven largely driven by hopes of better WLB (naive in hindsight), which did not materialize in either role. Since IB I have persistent anxiety around work, which I think is due to a combination of the long hours and a “fear” of new deals hitting my desk (I think having to sift through bucketloads of data in short timeframes gives me anxiety). Coming to the conclusion that “high finance” is probably not for me and may look to pivot to a corporate role (corp dev, strategy), but my fear is I will make that switch and find that I am ultimately not happier (worse comp, brand name, etc)
For those who made the switch and left IB/PE or similar roles: was it worth it and why, and what role did you go from and to?
In similar boat but with ~10 years of IB+PE experience. Carry is underwater for me and my fund is struggling so no real long-term value to stay. Not sure if I want to hop to another PE firm and try again / basically commit to PE. Thinking of corp dev or AI start-up if i want to take more risk (although not sure where to find AI start-up jobs in first place). Not sure what other options are good besides these 2
In a similar position, tbh I think best course of action would be CorpDev or going back to IBD. If I'm the kind who would be an entrepreneur that would also be a good option, but I'm not.
Are you thinking corp dev for a large F500 company? Or corp dev for a PE-backed business/roll-up? Former is probably better WLB but lower pay on average (I assume - correct me if I'm wrong). Latter is more likely remote, hours probably more volatile depending on how many add-ons you're working on, but you get decent cash comp in the 300s plus equity options
I went to a target so I'm used to hard work
I went from HFs to the startup route, founded an AI co, did an accelerator, spent time in SF and NY startup scenes. If you're seriously considering that route, DM me. Happy to chat
Dad is an SMD at an EB, albiet a different generation than people on this forum. Weirdly enough; think as I have grown older he has worked less as he is not pitching nearly as much as before. Do not think that is the case for his friends in PE, who have worked similar if not higher hours as they climbed the ranks.
There is a much higher earnings potential in PE. Some of his friends who started their own LMM/MM funds or have a GP stake in one are for sure centi-millionaires+, and he also is friends with a senior MF partner who is probably approaching that $100mm mark (not sure if that is still possible today, but seemingly was if you joined a now MF ~25 years ago). On the other hand, far more people who didn't make it to partner despite wanting to compared to those who stayed in IB. It all just depends on your skillset and interests at the end of the day; you'll do the best when you find a job you are fit for.
How does your dad net worth compare?
Multiple times lower than the guys who found their own thing, but not too far off from the PE partners at MF's or more stagnant or older middle market type funds. I think commentor below is thinking of SMD's as only the Eric Tokat's of the world; an average SMD at a EB get's paid very well into the 7 figures but is not approaching the NW of anyone in the GP of a decent sized PE firm.
This sounds off.
SMD at a truly elite boutique (Evercore/Moelis) is typically making it rain. If he’s been there at a Sr level for a long time, he’s probably meaningfully in the equity pool. He probably cleans up.
Sr partners in PE working a ton is usually expressed via LP and board meetings.
Very Senior Partners (eg head of strategies etc) at MFs don’t approach centi-millionaire status, they approach billionaire status.
My situation definitely a bit rare on the offer I ultimately accepted but I was getting absolutely killed in UMM PE and was borderline crying every other day lol darkest period of my life was so miserable and left and got lucky and doing strategy at a large company making $350k and working 9-7pm it worked out thank the fucking lord
Can you share what industry / how large is the company you moved to? Any equity too? Also where did you find the opp - headhunter or Linkedin job posting?
Any idea how to get in this path without mba? Currently in top mm software tech ai ib interested in long term wlb
Sounds awesome dude. I know Strategy roles can vary a lot by company, what does your role involve? Corp dev and m&a or bigger picture strategy setting?
What’s that cash / equity split look like?
Ultimately I think satisfaction with leaving materializes once you realize what your floor cash compensation requirement is to live the life you want to live.
I’m going to throw a number out there - but I think for any single young adult, you can live a very comfortable life when you make $250k in salary cash. Above that is really unnecessary in the sense that the $350k cash compensation on the buyside is not worth you being miserable for it most of your days. When you leave that side of the industry, the above poster is exactly right that after about a year — you’re fully recalibrated. You feel like yourself again, you finally pick up the old hobbies that meant a lot to you when you were still bright and happy during your college days, your friends and partner(s) will notice how much more present you are, how healthy you look, how available you’ve become. Everyone underestimates how heavy life is once you meet the $250k salary mark.
I say this to say, if you can find a pretty good role and see a path to $250k - $300k salary at a cruising senior level (depending what level you come in at a company, it might take 2-5 years to get to $250k so take that into strong consideration) then you’ll won’t regret a thing in due time. The problem is if you shoot too low on the corporate side and lock your self into a 10-year progression plan which will destroy your sense of drive / satisfaction with work. The main variable is always: what cash salary am I starting at.
Your estimate seems too high tbh. I think if not in NYC/SF/LA, a single guy can do really well on ~$175k salary cash (with bonus / stock on top of that)
Now when you have a family, that number will climb. But frankly 175k in Chicago or Atlanta or Dallas will keep you stress free working 40-45hrs per week. With a decent lifestyle, you should be able to max 401k and save some extra with that alone. Anything beyond this is pure cream
Agreed that blowing your life out for 350k just makes no sense.
I went to a target school
The only thing that is guaranteed is that you will have more time and more ability to set boundaries. What you do with that time and how you set those boundaries will determine your happiness.
It will be a transition and it will take 12-18 months post PE to feel like your pre finance personality again. You will go through cycles of regret, gratitude, insecurity, fear, and discomfort with the decision and, again, what you decide to do with your new found boundaries and time will determine if your life is better or worse.
I found myself in a very similar position. Nearly the same background and experience through IB/PE. I ended up transitioning to a PE-backed corporate development role. Comp will likely never touch what it was in IB/PE, but having my freedom back is invaluable. I almost feel more fulfillment in what I do now as it is embedded within one company and I can see the significance it carries across the business.
Life is way too short to let your role/title define your happiness.
Thanks for the feedback and awesome to hear it’s worked out well for you.
If you don’t mind me asking, is your corp dev role purely in house m&a or do you also work on strategic/non-financial tasks? Is culture noticeably different to your finance roles (as I guess most of your colleagues are also ex IB/PE)?
The first corp dev role I had out of IB / PE was purely execution. A pure-play roll-up with a lot of deals moving through the pipeline. The subsequent role was a promotion with a group that is much more targeted and thoughtful in acquisition targets. Much more quality over quantity and not really a financial engineering move in M&A. The role is heavily rooted in strategy and other work that is far outside the scope of M&A, which I enjoy.
You'll get a mix of the hardos that come from IB / PE and others who took an FP&A or more corporate path. That said the reason most are there is to protect what is sacred to them - family, friends, time outside of the office. From what I have seen in the corp dev environment, people still work just as hard but just with a clear objective in mind and solid gauge of what is important versus what is not.
5 years IB + PE, then worked at a startup, gave entrepreneurship a shot, now deciding between AI startup roles. Short answer - no, just started seeing different challenges.
I never worked that much less - the dynamic shifted from guys above me cracking the whip to me driving myself out of responsibility. I guess this is just my personality, plus the stakes are different when you're in a leadership role and actually have to care about your department / product / business. Sure I made incremental improvements like prioritizing health / the gym but not anything groundbreaking.
At the same time the compensation gap between startups and PE was very apparent and I felt true income insecurity for the first time in my life. In PE I was confident I'd at least end up with a decent home in a HCOL area, send my kids to private school, take a decent vacation once in a while. In startups, I feel like I'm living every "struggling millennial who will never own anything" stereotype.
Also I used to heavily sip the finance kool aid, so leaving PE really messed up my sense of identity. Outside of investing / banking, finance isn't a particularly impressive or valuable skillset. It's usually a back-office cost center, plus now companies are aggressively looking to automate finance with AI. Not to mention that most corporate finance work is mind-numbingly boring. Personally, wouldn't recommend staying in finance if you're going the corporate or startup route.
Interesting perspective, thanks for sharing. Agree with your take on working in a “finance” role in a corporate and how that’s less safe now. Considering that, how did you find the learning curve for all the non-finance aspects of your start-up roles? Guessing there wasn’t much transferable from the finance knowledge gained in IB/PE?
Challenging at first, but progressively easier. The non-finance stuff isn't hard - most of sales and ops is just common sense and jargon, assuming you're smart and socially competent. Your soft skills are also transferrable. The hard part is the mentality shift - knowing when to be good vs. perfect, dealing with rejection / failure, operating without a playbook, not having a point where your responsibility "ends", no task being too small, "politicking" if you weren't at that level in PE/IB yet.
Deeply technical software / engineering stuff is a completely different beast, but I'm assuming that even if you co-found your own business, you'll be the ops person, not the technical person.
After 10 years of collecting checks in IB I switched to a job making 150-200k in NYC and I fucking love life. I saved enough to coastFIRE and have hobbies and friends outside of work. I feel like I have 0 stress. Could afford to buy a halfway decent house in the burbs (~1.5mm) if I wanted but I'm single and enjoying NYC for now. That will probably change in the next 5 years.
After 10 years of collecting checks in IB I switched to a job making 150-200k in NYC and I fucking love life. I saved enough to coastFIRE and have hobbies and friends outside of work. I feel like I have 0 stress. Could afford to buy a halfway decent house in the burbs (~1.5mm) if I wanted but I'm single and enjoying NYC for now. That will probably change in the next 5 years.
how'd you decide you were at coastfire levels? multiple of annual spend?
pretty much. i am targeting ~5-7mm NW for retirement, and if i do marry i do not intend to marry someone who contributes absolutely nothing before having kids. if you put a gun to my head and made me put a number on it...i'd say if you're at 30 with at least $1mm liquid you are very comfortable. but women and booze are very expensive hobbies...thankfully i am good after 2-3 drinks.
After 10 years of IB, how did you come around to letting go? Seems like the golden handcuffs would have set in at that point, no?
One thing that will always be is the combing through data. Never been in corporate finance but I guarantee plowing through data will still happen. Maybe they have more focused systems, but there is always something goofy. The one advantage is it is not an eat what you kill environment so the pressure will be less. Just my two cents.
Totally valid. For me the issue isn’t just “working with data” - it’s the stress that comes with needing to review “data dumps” of 500+ pages of diligence, IMs, etc. with a turnaround of 1 week tops, often juggling multiple opportunities at once and once done it’s straight on to the next one
yes.
Exiting UBS improved my mental health by 1000%. No more brain damage!
If you want to make high six or low seven figures in your late 20s/early 30s, finance is the easiest way to do this and its not close at all. Yes, it is competitive and the job sucks, but this is the reality. Every single person that I know that at one point did make $500K on track for >$1M and now makes less for whatever silly reason regrets it with essentially no exceptions. That said, it you were not on this path (which is ~80% of people in finance anyways), then yes you might not care and be happy etc since there was no point of you being in the industry anyway in my opinion and yes you should leave. But if you're on the golden path, you will most likely suffer extreme regret when you leave and want to come back. Yes, people in PE or HFs or IBD whatever do suck, but actually you know who is more annoying? Almost everything else in comparison. You will think startups are cool until you realize they are run by 20 year olds who are talented primarily at defrauding their investors or customers (ngl though they are actually genuinely talented at this, just stating facts tho no judgement). If you get anywhere close to paid at these places what you made before, you are basically going to be the highest paid employee at the firm and that's not a great place to be, because your life will be just as stressful as before. Most finance jobs are incredibly retarded, but you know what - so is a lot of work in general.
The risk is not really monetary. There is no risk there since it's guaranteed you will make less lol. The main adaptation that will surprise you is just losing a sense of identity and most of my friends and family losing respect for me. If people didn't really like you in high school but then now you have a cool high paying job and suddenly women all like you and people respect you, what you'll remember is that people don't really like you that much and no they don't like you for "who you are." What does that even mean: "who you are"? Who you are is many things and people don't typically know "who you are." This can be hard to accept and I hope you don't have to ever accept it because it's not something you should have to accept. I genuinely would wish on everyone that they believe that people do like them for "who they are."
Most people don't change their levels of successful very quickly in short periods of time and so most people simply will not experience this. Why is it that literally every single person I know who has left the "golden path" has regretted it and said the same thing I'm saying? Was it for the money? Sort of, but not really. It's actually the fact that they realize how much they lose in this aspect. It's a hard adjustment. At least for me, the key was realizing I don't need the approval of others. That's really easy to say and usually people who say this already do have the approval of others. If you think you don't need the approval of others, you are almost certainly wrong. I thought I didn't and most people would say I don't, but if you are someone that does have this approval and you lose it, you will suddenly see something that was invisible and that thing you see will be hard to accept and will change how you view a lot of things in life.
All this said, I'm really glad I left. Finance is a truly retarded industry and I say this as someone that literally got the jobs most people on this site say are like best HF/ best IBD etc. My life is clearly worse in literally every objective way possible and I wouldn't say I'm happier. But it is what I authentically chose. The thing about taking a risk to be an entrepreneur (what I chose to do) is that quite often risks do not pay off. This is the wild thing about "taking a risk" that people often don't understand! Risks typically do not pay off - that is why they are risks! But I chose to accept all sides of the dice I rolled and tbh amor fati.
Don't think for a second that "because I got this elite competitive finance job I can do anything". No you can't. Finance is not hard. I worked at one of the best hf and can confirm people are retarded and no they would not be "successful at anything they put their mind to". No you are not as smart as you think. Everyone works hard. Most successful requires experience and learning from the best; you will not always "learn from the best" if you leave. If you have something good in an industry and have gotten a lot of great mentorship, probably accept the path you're on. A lot of things in life are hard. No, you are not automatically good at other things. Yes, getting good at other things means you might have to put in banking hours to get good at those other things; that's how getting good at things actually works.
I'm sorry for glazing, and not that my opinion is worth much, but I really value your judgment. I hope to have this level of intellectual honesty one day. I am very confident that you're going to succeed as an entrepreneur, and I'd invest off your character alone (if I wasn't a broke student). Genuinely thank you
I really resonated with this - could I drop you a DM?
I made the jump from a mid-market PE shop to a Corp Dev role at a tech firm about two years ago, and honestly, the difference in mental bandwidth is night and day. I had that same "deal dread" whenever my phone buzzed, but in corporate, the pace is much more dictated by internal strategy rather than frantic, externally-imposed closing deadlines. You definitely take a haircut on the total comp and the prestige factor fades fast, but having my Sundays back and actually being able to focus on one project without three others looming in the background essentially cured my burnout. If you're already at the point where the brand name doesn't outweigh the daily anxiety, the pivot is worth it for the headspace alone.
for those who made jump to corp dev. curious, how do you start going about it and finding opportunities? thanks
Aliquam occaecati ea ut sed dolorem dolores asperiores. Consequatur aut eius modi quia perferendis ut aut distinctio. Consequuntur aspernatur est iste vero sed. Repellat exercitationem ratione excepturi sunt quia.
Aperiam saepe mollitia sequi nostrum. Nulla sint et tempore dolor. Excepturi et ullam eum magnam. Consectetur voluptatibus sint nihil sed laborum et sed. Perferendis voluptas dolorum laudantium aut. Esse quia qui et tempora. Ipsa quaerat sint magni distinctio quis eos.
See All Comments - 100% Free
WSO depends on everyone being able to pitch in when they know something. Unlock with your email and get bonus: 6 financial modeling lessons free ($199 value)
or Unlock with your social account...
Qui omnis odit aliquid sint voluptatibus. Blanditiis cum et deserunt aliquid. Minus quod quia sunt eum aut eos rerum.
Sit officia commodi temporibus aut. Autem sunt cumque ut nesciunt. Animi impedit in sit error dignissimos consectetur. Quibusdam animi iure molestias facilis nihil quibusdam. Qui ut eos saepe illum quaerat rerum.
Perferendis magnam recusandae mollitia eligendi iusto. Ut ad possimus in consectetur. Nihil dolore sed rerum rerum. Ut velit sint voluptas vel earum adipisci. Assumenda qui qui suscipit quidem ipsum excepturi nobis. Iure modi et modi temporibus libero quia qui.
Aspernatur enim repudiandae et doloremque cumque. Animi adipisci error dolor nesciunt aut. Esse tempora cumque dolore laudantium.