I’m an associate at a MM tech fund (think STG/PSG/Great Hill) on a career path and clear promotion route that just got an offer to join a MF (think Thoma/Vista/Silver Lake) and questioning if the move makes sense.
I would be restarting my associate years and the career path is less secure but salary is substantially more as well as brand recognition. I expect hours to be the same.
What would you do?
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Brand and comp vs certainty of progression. If you want optionality and bigger future paydays/exits, go MF. If you want a predictable timeline and less ambiguity, stay. Not a right answer just what matters most to you.
Would love to learn more about your recruiting process. Can you pm?
How certain are you that you will be promoted to senior associate and (more importantly) VP at your current fund? If certain, I'd stay there
For the MF, do you fully need to restart the associate years (i.e., if you're a 2Y associate now, you'd be joining at the same level as incoming banking hires) or would it just be 1 extra year (redoing 2Y associate)? If you need to fully re-do associate years, I would probably pass on that. Also I would pass if it's Vista (v. Thoma / SL) since their future trajectory doesn't seem certain / attractive enough to warrant the risk of the move (+ see the recent statements from Robert Smith on plans for AI-driven headcount reduction - not that it wouldn't impact the overall industry, but seems like they're looking to be a first mover)
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