Significant time off before starting PE role?
Headed to a borderline UMM/MF next summer. I am honestly so burned out from my current gig that I think will be best both for me and my future firm if I’m able to take some time off between.
Im also moving cities so would be great to take a few months to move, get settled in, meet some people, etc before I hit the desk.
I have a summer bonus but am honestly thinking about just forgoing it, as staying through bonus would give me no time off. I don’t think I can handle that and would rather give up the money now and better position myself for success in my next role. Lots of other stuff in my personal life as well driving this decision (sick family members I haven’t spent any time with recently, etc).
Given I’m losing bonus, I might as well just quit earlier, right? Money not a concern for me at this point in career.
Has anyone tried to do ~3-6 months off before a PE gig? Obviously the expectation is you are finishing you’re banking program but wondering how blurry that line is. Know taking a month off is common but wondering what is considered “normal”/acceptable? Could I do 2-3 months without raising any flags?
I also had a thought about taking an internship / different role between. Theoretically, what if I asked the PE firm about taking a 6 month internship in a startup in my sector? Figure I could spin that into a very relevant experience that might help my role there. Im entering a relatively niche industry group and think there could be an actual case in me getting operating experience at a company?
Anyway, just bouncing ideas around and curious if anyone has taken time off beyond a few weeks of travel. Is there a way to even broach this at my incoming firm without seeming like an absolute slacker?
Do it man. Life is meant to be lived. Also what’s the point of all this money if you can’t enjoy it every now and then?
#1- the money is peanut. What’s your bonus going to be, $150k? 7 years from now, you’ll make that in 6 weeks.
#2- 3 months is a pretty good break, any longer than that, and you might just start getting ideas of not going back to work at all. Your employer is also expecting someone to show up that has 2 years of work experience. If you meaningfully cut that short, they won’t be thrilled about it, just FYI.
Depends on the firm really. As a rule of thumb, the harder the job was to get, the more seriously they’ll take themselves and the more annoyed they’ll be that you’re not showing up day 1 with a sleeping bag, a compass, and some MREs. Eg if you’re going to Apollo/Blackstone/KKR they’re going to care more. If you’re going to a relatively obscure MM shop, they may care or they may not… there’s probably a higher likelihood they’re a bit more sensible.
I took 1 month off in between.
A friend of mine took around 3 months - this should be fine. He didn't even tell the PE firm, just straight quit his job.
I agree with above that if you take more than 3 months off you might actually decide to not come back to the grind. I personally think taking 6 months off would be sick though, imagine how many things you can see with your banking savings and a bunch of free time.
I took 4.5 it can be done. Same destination as you. The fund was chill about it.
I took 4.5 months off and would recommend it. Starting at a MF soon
Can you please explain how you did this? Did you quit banking early? Assuming you would have had ~1 month off between gigs, that would mean you left ~3.5 months early, that would mean you left mid-March?
I am supposed to start next summer but am completely burnt out and want to leave banking now.
Also curious
OP - did you decide what you want to do/have a conversation with your fund yet? I guess if you were only to take off 2-3 months that would mean quitting around end of April, which is still a very long way away lol.
Curious if people tell their funds when they do this (take ~3 months off) or just do it? Was chatting with a friend today who wanted to and asked me for advice and wasn’t sure what to say.
One hand, feels like it’s easier to ask for forgiveness than permission and I can’t imagine anyone who matters at the fund would even find out, but on the other hand obviously don’t want to lose an offer over taking time off
Bump on how to actually execute this (tell them or not)
Consulting > LMM PE - I took 1.5 months off and wished I had taken a bit more. This was several years ago so a different market sentiment.
Bump
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