Leaving PE After 1 Year
Ignore title, currently AS1 at an MF shop.
Went into PE thinking it was going to be better than banking, but frankly it’s been worse. Even in this quiet market, I’m somehow still pulling all nighters and working weekends on non live deal work (lots of internal memos and research).
I know I just started and it’s been less than 6 months, but I’m really feeling burnt out. Anyone have stories or leaving after year 1 of a 2 year associate program? Any words of advice or things to know about leaving a year early? Still debating what I’d do next but would have interest in earlier stage investing or corp dev, if leaving early effects any of those opportunities.
Hey, what's up man. I totally get it. I fucking hated PE. Was on a similar high performance path with top schools and work, and then got to PE and was just like, wait, what the hell - this is it? Not only that, it's this fucking tedious day in and out surrounded by finance sickos who love this shit?
Anyway, I was in a bad place during, let's say, month 3 to month 12. Month 13-16 was not great but I had a pattern I could survive in without hating everything (plus moved teams internally which was a godsend). Month 17+ was totally autopilot, after experiencing that I'm squarely in the camp that you could make a private markets robo-investor in the next 5-10y.
Anywho, what is my point. First point is it gets a little better as you get into year 2, even if nothing actually changes, you're just a little more settled. Kind of like AN2. Might still get rocked but you know what you're doing and when to push back.
Next point is that, being in the program has been helpful for my career. It's not like it's game changing but I did end up learning a lot, the pedigree helps, and for anyone in the industry, I think it's a weird thing to see if you leave at 1 year. Which, totally, it should not be, but I think it just is, so if you can survive, just hack it out, it's a year and you'll get a big fat $150-200k bonus your second year. That bonus specifically rocks so hard. To be able to look at in my bank account every day and know if life just gives me the middle finger, that I have that security, is awesome.
Anywho I'd recommend hacking it out until you have a better sense of what you want to do. If you were all in on early stage I'd say when life gives you lemons fuck the lemons and bail, but as this sounds more like the classic "I'm in PE and I don't know what to do and I'm kind of burned out but don't really have any place I would necessarily jump to leave for", I'd say just get the big reward of two years here, and use the time to figure out what you want to do, and kick tires on some of the early-career-optionality optys that come your way like early stage VC.
Super helpful advice - appreciate the perspective!
Idk who this man is, but I really like him.
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