I joined a start-up private equity firm at the associate level (came with some prior investing experience). Before I joined, and part of the reason for my switch, is because I was promised better work life balance (due to low deal volume target per year) and path to senior associate. Less than 10 people work at the firm total, it's a "lean" investment team. In reality, it turns out they have an aggressive deal sourcing and closing target. I will admit - when I got the offer, I did not do enough reverse diligence on them. I was "grateful" to get the offer and the opportunity to continue the path of a investor.
However - I am the only "junior" investment professional on the investment team and have been working non-stop.
Because a) I am on too many live deals, b) timelines are very short, c) am only "good" at my job not a genius, and d) haven't been able to take nearly any time off or breaks -> my underwriting materials / work product has suffered due to burnout and fatigue.
When I had a conversation about this with the partner, they say i just need to "get more efficient, so they can add more on my plate". On the other hand, it feels like they are just saying whatever they can to keep me cranking on deals that are closing in the near term. I work every weekday until 3am, get emails on the weekend, my (life) partner has grown resentful, and it feels like I have been retraded and lied to (path to senior associate and some sort of balance).
I am trying to hold on for dear life for my bonus end of Q1. Mental health is at an all time low. Should I just quit or continue to ride it out for bonus? It will be a very long 100 days.
What would be "optimal" is to: Keep going and trying to lateral rather than quitting outright in this market. I recognize this sounds impossible in your current headspace, but that's what is "optimal." The market is slow right now and you may be recruiting for a very long time without a job. Which may actually feel worse than you currently do. And yes, get the bonus
You are going to cringe reading that so the steps to help keep you there are:
It will not feel easy. But with above steps you WILL get another job and you WILL feel better. You got this.
Great advice, +1. It will get better
Finally...a wholesome and actual humanistic response to someone seeking advice.
not OP but you are amazing soul. we need more folks like you. wish you all the best this world has to offer.
How do you (or anyone else) suggest trying to recruit in this type of scenario where this ASO is clearly doing everything/on every project and has limited time to actually recruit? Genuinely curious (in a similar situation albeit smaller team than OP and a level more senior).
Terrific advice for all finance professionals - The crash course survival guide to burnout
I really appreciate the reply, thank you. Will try to keep going.
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At my prior firm I was being paid below market, at my current firm I am at market comp. I left because higher comp and better balance seemed to be too good to be true (which it was).
Try to go a little longer to get that bonus--you are almost there!
In the meantime, it is going to be hard to prioritize your mental health, physical health, etc. if you are working all the time. However, you should definitely get your relationship in order--It is not worth throwing away your life partner for a job. Make sure your partner understands that they will need to put up with you not being around and stressed all the time for only a little longer. Together, figure out your money situation, how long you can go on without a job, etc.
It sounds like there is no future at this firm--your boss just wants to keep adding more to your plate. While the job market may not be the best right now, if you were smart enough to get into PE and it seems like you gained a ton of deal experience at this firm, you will be fine.
With the little free time you have, get your resume in order, outline a plan of action, figure out if there is anyone in your firm you would still be able to use as a referral, network and reach out to recruiters, prepare for interviews. Try to involve your partner even if they can't help much (read over your resume, ask you interview questions, work next to you, tell her about a role you would be excited for or a good networking conversation you had)--it's not the best way to spend your time together, but it's better than spending no time and building more resentment. If it is your life partner, then you need to rely on her support to keep you sane when times get really tough like this.
Lastly, I agree with the other commentor that you should cut out drinking/drugs during this time. Your mental health is in the gutter, drinking will only make it worse. Revert this time to working on your health, relationships, or executing on your plan of action.
Thanks and appreciated
Also start to draw boundaries. Ensure you are getting 7-8 hours of sleep a night
Maybe performance will suffer, maybe they’ll get angry, bur ultimately you have to look after yourself
Thank you
Crazy to think that I get better insight, empathy and advice from folks on this forum than close friends I've known my entire life
life*
There's a lot of good advice in this thread.
I have a different suggestion, and maybe this will be a bad idea in practice at your firm, but for the purposes of a thought experiment, what if you were to just set boundaries and stop overworking yourself? Only do as much work as you're comfortable with, and within reason.
Let's workshop what would actually happen if you did this. Obviously the worst thing that could happen is you'd get fired, but will that actually come to pass?
It sounds like if you got fired/quit, the rest of your team would be overextended such that they would piss the clients off with slow deliverables, and that's really bad. Sure, you may be the most junior person on the team, but sometimes that could be a position of strength. Imagine you're running a logistics company and you only have one truck driver. What happens if he walks off the job and no one else can do it, or it would take months to hire a new guy with a CDL license and train them? It's not a perfect 1:1 example, but I want you to recognize your own value in this firm's operation. You have more power to push back than you think.
There are many employees at companies that carve out a successful career for themselves by becoming "unfireable". This is done by being "the only guy that does X or Y" such that getting rid of them would have serious consequences for the higher ups, so they need to be constantly pleased with annual raises and special accommodations. There is a way to turn a position of weakness into a position of strength.
I'm not in finance and not too familiar with how this stuff plays out in PE firms at a nuanced level, but I have employees who I try to keep happy because I really don't want them to leave. If they asked me to reduce their workload by 20% or they'll quit, I'd have to oblige.
So the question is, do you think your firm would rather fire you and retrain a new associate in the middle of a bunch of live deals, or simply put up with you doing 20% less work? That's a question that only you know the answer to, but strongly consider this option.
It's not an 'either-or' scenario - you should still apply to other firms and work out as others have suggested, but you may be able to carve out some reprieve from your workload as well.
In this perverse world we live in, many bosses are incentivized to keep you as busy as possible, not just to extract maximum value out of you, but also to prevent you from exploring other options. In a fight, you often need to make space to re-evaluate your opponent and strategy. Your opponent wants to prevent you from making space between them in order to constantly keep you on the defensive.
I will consider your words very carefully - thanks very much for the food for thought.
Echoing what urban_engineer said. If you are the only junior, it can also be a case of your ability/ willingness to take on more work being part of the problem. If you have not given feedback that you are tapped out, consider doing that and scaling back on tasks going forward and setting more realistic expectation on task completion dates. They probably think they can dump any amount of work on you and you can manage. Obviously that is not the case, which gets more pronounced if multiple people assign work to you and no one in senior management has a complete picture of your total workload. Being the only junior, I doubt they will fire you right away. But if they do fire you, it's probably for the best since they are not willing to scale back on their near inhumane expectations.
I understand that your priorities are WLB but in terms of compensation, is their significant differences from your previous firm ?
Some Of You Guys Are Alright, Don't Go to IC Tomorrow
You're describing an almost identical situation that I was in during Q1'2021, albeit with a few important differences. I ended up quitting after 4 months for a much needed sabbatical, but a few important details make me think you should stick it out and not quit immediately like I did.
Just my two cents but I think you should just put your head down and revisit recruiting in 1-2 years.
Really good advice on here - all things that worked well during a similar situation for me.
One addition: if you can, set a drop dead date: i.e. the date you will tender your notice regardless of job situation (2 weeks after bonus is received for example). This will provide you and your partner with psychological relief. Tell your family. Make it real. Obviously part of this will involve financial planning. Start having a story / other activities lined up.
You may also find that once you resign they ask you to stay for awhile, given the lack of junior resources.
Good luck and hang in there.
I did this and it helped a lot thank you
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