Motivation / Focus
After slugging through 2 years of intense ib group and 2 years at intense MF I lateraled to a smaller platform about 10 months ago (strict 2 and out). For some reason, I can’t get myself to focus on work. My brain wonders, I’m not motivated, I stopped checking my work as intensely, I’m just a more lazy person. I make careless mistakes although feedback has been generally positive so far. I don’t think I’m burnt out but can’t figure out why I went from well respected at my prior firms to losing all my focus at work. Anyone go through someone similar? Apologies for brain dump
Because the nature of work in PE often feels boring and mind-numbing—you’re cranking through models and diligence to the degree that you stop caring about the substance of the work. You’re not like VCs chasing frontier technologies and reshaping the ecosystem, or like a chief of staff driving transformation inside a corporate org. You’re more of a mind-numbing machine—focused on capital structure, monitoring, and incremental operational tweaks—rather than fundamentally building or changing something
I don’t think that’s it - I completely lost my drive to work
Lmao at the Chief of Staff comment, most mind numbing shit possible.
For all its faults, the work in PE is very much at the top of what constitutes interesting work in white collar professions.
Tells me you have no clue the prestige and influence associated with being able to work as Chief of Staff at a Sequoia/Vista-backed company. Expand your horizon I would recommend / read more
PE is overrrated, and according to the latest data, there’re more PE firms than McDonalds in the US, no wonder why PE associates lose motivation
I think you're burnt out. It may not feel like it but these are classic signs of burn out. See if you can take a vacation where you totally unplug and get into nature. Check if you feel different after you come back.
Good advice - will give it a try / hopefully holidays at the end of the year slow things down.
Agree with this guy. Burnout comes in direct shapes & sizes.
Because work is gay lol.
During 2+2 what keeps you going is its still this thing you’ve built in your head as a mountain to climb so you can be one of those guys
After that once you actually are comfortable in the career it becomes just that, a career, so either you leave and do something with massive upside and get re-enthused by the prospect of being stupid rich or you just do your job and become those stupid disengaged mid levels we all hated back in the day
That would mean most people at VP+ level are disengaged which I don’t think is true but think you’re point is probably true. After a while it’s just a paycheck without much upside
Agree with this. No matter how objectively good your current comp/job is compared to other industries, if you previously were at the most intense/competitive roles possible, you'll likely feel less motivation if the stakes are now relatively lower and/or there's less upside than before.
So as mentioned above, you'll either need to: Adjust your mindset/approach to be comfortable with the situation / acknowledge it won't be as consistently motivating/intense as prior roles but can still be a route for you to succeed by exerting as much effort as before; or Look for another role you think will be more competitive / more upside / more challenging
This is classic case of burnout because both IB and PE workstreams are inherently very similar - once you have done few M&As at IB and IC decks at PE, the process is relatively the same going forward which makes it (at least for me) feel like a manual labor creating complicated models with multiple scenarios and slides.
I would suggest either taking a time off (at least a week or two) and if it doesn’t get better, probably better to try something new at least if you don’t love PE.
Go on a walk after work every day if you can’t get any other exercise in
I know you said you’re coasting now and doing fine at work, but it will eventually show up in your work and it will ruin your career. Take it seriously and address it now before you’ve burned all your goodwill at work and put yourself in a bad situation.
Thank you - will give it a try.
What the hell is wrong with Americans and their obsession with therapy. Yeah I'm sure speaking to a liberal woman will do wonders for my mental health
Most executives and pro athletes have therapists. It’s less about them telling you what to do and more having an outlet to 1) vent and 2) organize your scrambled thoughts.
On #1 - the unfortunate truth is that if you’re not in a good place and you don’t have an outlet to get shit off your chest you’re inevitably going to be a miserable person to be around and that will take a major toll on your friendships and family. Knowing you have space to dump everything on your chest makes it easier to comparmentalize and show up better for others, as well as make less emotional decisions. Your family and friends are not trained or paid to listen to you rant and it’s really taxing to be exposed to so much negativity from a person they’re close to. It also frankly crowds out any space they have to share what’s going on with their lives because they assume you’re in such a bad place that you wouldn’t care or have the space for it. The long term effect is an erosion of trust and closeness.
On #2 - it’s about checking your logical inconsistencies and making sure you’re actually rationally coming to conclusions. When the stakes are high and you’re under a lot of stress, you need to make sure you’re making decisions that are grounded in reality vs. are projections of your own emotions and biases. That’s why it has so much utility to high performers - so you don’t self sabotage and make poor decisions that are driven by underlying emotions vs true objective reality.
I’ll leave you with this Jung quote: "Until you make the unconscious conscious, it will direct your life and you will call it Fate".
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