PE Associates - Whats your plan? I feel weird about Burnout and leaving
Did IB 2 years at an absolute sweatshop and now 8 months into PE and am pretty sure I do not want to do the rat race and be miserable and continue to climb in PE. Was thinking of just accepting a strategic finance or corp dev job.
However, I feel really weird that I have the possibility to earn millions+ of carry dollars, really high salaries, etc in PE. I understand not everyone makes it to partner and a lot get shoved out / carry is hard to materialize etc, but I feel weird leaving this path that is so hard to get on in the first place.
Thoughts? What are other peoples plans? Who is burnt out? Who feels like they can keep this up for 10+ years?
Here are some rough data points from my firm / ASO class:
50% B School. Of the graduates, half of them stayed in traditional PE, half went to growth, did their own startup, doing search fund, or tech / corporate. I went corporate.
25% stayed on for VP. They found a good sustainable niche, liked the work, and had rapport. I wouldn’t say these folks were any better as Associates, in fact some of them I was the one helping them do shit. They made it clear they wanted it, and were competent enough to stay, were well-liked, and the timing worked out.
25% left, mostly to other funds.
Appreciate the response. Thanks so much!
Do you mind writing out what made your decision to leave to corporate? Did you not enjoy PE, did you just get burnt out? How are you liking your corporate job now,and if you don't mind me asking what your comp was like before + after? At my LMM fund all in comp for year 1 was $260k but worked 9am to 11pm every night sometimes later. the strategic finance gig offer is $245k 9-5pm so i think it is an easy answer although scale is worse of course.
Thank you
Combination of factors. Burnout, yes. I was also stuck on a sub team whom I absolutely hated, which can make or break your experience. Despite what you say to Partners or staffers, if a sub team keeps pulling you into their shit, you’re stuck with them as long as you’re there. I was a very high performer but there was no future for me.
B school was a reset, I was targeting coinvest afterwards. Thanks to the shitty market, pivoted to a corpdev/ stratfin role with ~$250K tc, vs $300+ as a 2Y associate.
Life is good. Work pace is fast, but I’m done by 5:30 no matter what, and nobody responds to me past 5. Trajectory-wise, I’m fine. I could see myself getting into a sponsor backed CFO seat for example, or back to investing if the role, team, and culture fit the bill. I don’t need the extra money - I spend a lot admittedly, but not extravagantly. Also, if you can’t live and save in NYC at $250K+, you have a problem.
Would love to hear a bit more about your stratfin/CD role paying that high of a salary at those hours - without giving too much away: what industry and how large is the company? Did you find the role through LinkedIn/ job boards or a recruiter?
Headhunter in my industry. I’m the only guy under 40 who’s done M&A, capital raising, actual modeling. So in effect the “strategic finance” team is just me. I suggest people look for opps liek these when they get their IB/PE training - my boss is the CFO, I have his trust, and I try to really learn from him.
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