Reneging on a PE Offer
Currently an IB analyst.
Accepted an offer during recruiting. Used one of the big headhunters and signed with a megafund. I should have given it more thought - it’s not in the industry I am really passionate about. I was put in a room by fund and given 30mins. On top of that I had the recruiter calling me / emailing saying I wouldn’t get anything else and that this was last opportunity available. Needless to say, I panicked and signed...
Over the past couple of months I’ve actually taken the time to learn about some of the funds I am really interested in. I went through further interviews with different funds (through different recruiters) and have received an offer and I am now finishing another process as well.
Highly considering reneging. How bad will this be? Could I have all my offers pulled? This opportunity is not for me and it would be a waste of all my time in my current IB career getting familiar with an industry I’m really passionate about.
I don't think anyone is going to be able to give you a definitive answer because everyone is different and has a different view on these things. That being said, PE is not a collaborative industry, funds tend to be extremely competitive against each other (hence why the recruiting timeline has moved so early, I'll come back to that) and I think a lot of senior professionals would actually take pleasure / pride in "stealing" a candidate from a competing fund (especially if it's a larger / more prestigious fund). On the other hand, you don't know what the professional / personnel relationships are between the fund you want to join and the fund you'd be reneging and those can be quite strong and have a huge impact on whether people would be supportive or not.
That assumes that you are upfront about the offer you already signed on. I think there's a growing realization that the extra accelerated timeline isn't a productive way to recruit associates and I know that you'd find sympathy with your story.
On the other hand, you have to be transparent about your situation. And let me be clear, by being honest, you run the risk that you may not get a second or third offer, but at least you know that you won't face the worst case scenario of ending up with no offer. Trust is paramount in this business and I know that a lot of people at my firm / in my network wouldn't want to go forward with a candidate that wasn't transparent about his / her situation even if they would have been supportive of you reneging if told beforehand. So in summary, I'd suggest you lay your cards on the table with the 2nd (and potentially 3rd) fund before accepting their offer and see what they say. Worst case scenario, you still have a MF offer which even though it looks it's not the perfect fit, is still a top placement and would set you extremely well for the future.
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