Throwing in the towel at age 31/32
This is, at its core, journaling in public, so if that's not your bag, press ctrl+W.
Today I throw in the towel. Been on WSO since early '10s. I was on the overachiever treadmill from birth until earlier this summer. Top undergrad, PE, MBA, and then some. I have a nice nest egg (though wish it was bigger) and I am ready to not think about work with my free thinking time.
I have not relaxed much in my life and let me tell you, unemployment is fantastic. Every day I wake up, go to the gym, enjoy a coffee at the coffee shop, listen to music and dance around the house, read interesting books, play video games, get dinner and drinks with friends, visit with family, travel, hike.
I put in a good decade into The Path and I think I'm ready for FAANG++ corp dev. The ride has been a privilege. Every high and low was memorable. It might be time to have kids. Maybe it's time to figure out who I am outside of work. I don't really know.
But man, what a good chapter the last 10 years were. Now I'm going to go live life.
Just dropping you a Godspeed, onwards and upwards, from a fellow monkey that’s been on WSO from those days.
del
we applaud you good sir. best wishes
Hell yeah dude, congrats
"Top undergrad, PE, MBA" and your idea of a "step down" to have time to discover yourself is FAANG corp dev lol.
lol. Didnt even think of that. Just goes to show how little time I’ve had to self reflect
I appreciate you being a good sport about it haha
Exactly
Did the same thing, except my nest egg got wiped by the MBA.
Being forced to come to terms with who I am and what I like to do when not working is refreshing, though confusing. Sometimes there’s an itch of “I can do more,” but that quickly gets scratched on the one-off days / week where I’m working long and don’t have time to gym, see friends, go work remote in a random place, etc.
I’m also slowly becoming less of a cynical person in general - something I didn’t fully realize I’ve built up from IB/PE.
Was the MBA worth it / would you do it again?
I would for sure do it again, but it did financially ruin me so it’s hard for me to recommend to people without knowing their situation. It’s a highly personal decision and whether or not someone regrets getting it depends on what they wanted out of it. What I wanted out of the MBA had very little to do with increasing my career trajectory, so I more or less got what I wanted.
Curious to hear what your nest egg is? As someone who is more and more coming to terms with the fact that I cannot do this forever and follow a similar path by the time I'm your age (still a few years away), would be interesting to hear where you are at and in a perfect world where you would have liked to be (realistically).
LSD $mm because I yolo’d my bonuses hard during the pandemic in crypto and shitcos. Wanted to get to $5+ before throwing in the towel ($250k/y on treasuries).
what does LSD mean
how would you get to 5mm by 10 years in IB and/or PE?
I would just be cautious about which corp dev team you join as they're wildly different in terms of wlb even among the FAANGs
Which are good and which are bad?
Amazon is known for being notoriously bad. Google is known for being good. I've heard great things about Netflix's cash comp being the highest.
Congrats! This is the way....
Congrats on your achievements and knowing when to move on.
Do you mind sharing comp progression across the years?
>>Now I'm going to go live life.
what will you do?
Thank you for your service sir. Hope you enjoy retirement 🫡
Congrats mate! Enjoy the snail pace.
I’m sure he will
Sounds like this is an example of Coast FIRE, something I’m personally striving for. Build the nest egg and downgrade job to something more enjoyable/healthy that covers basic expenses
Congrats - try squeeze some epic travel in if you have the appetite.
Recommend the vagabonding book (bit dated but the vibe is right).
Life changing stuff living around the world if you can.
Why do people like you make these posts but absolutely refuse to tell us how much you’ve made or saved?
People will anonymously post their embarrassing issues, trauma and political leanings, but guard their compensation and savings like it’s Fort Knox lol.
It would be helpful to know how much you’ve made and saved, as a marker for others.
Or to get a sense of how much time you have to chill before getting another job.
This is a finance forum, but getting people to share salary and financial info is like pulling teeth. I don’t get it.
Huh? OP has said he's saved LSD mm (so USD 1-3mm).
There are multiple threads here talking about comp and bonuses across a variety of sectors, each year.
I know contrarian/skeptic/even keel is your MO but sometimes it’s okay to be positive man
I won’t be happy pleasant till I can retire from this god forsaken industry.
Hey OP, I'm on the other end of the path, and I can definitely say I envy you and the clarity/inner peace you are enjoying. Looking back on what you've done, do you have any regrets or choices you made that at the time seemed like a risk but were worth taking? Curious to hear how your journey went and get some advice for someone who is debating being an IB-lifer or looking at other paths before it gets too late in the game.
Cheers, enjoy the next stage of life o7
Hey, was just wondering if you could shed some light on how you’re going about evaluating if it’s worth it for you to stick around or not? What do you think are the pros and cons of doing IB and then maybe a buyside stint for you personally?
Just trying to get some perspective.
Howdy. I think it depends on what you're going into IB/finance for in the first place. If you are doing it just for the money, then there are other paths that compensate you just as well over time (so this is not a good reason to go into the field on its own). However, if you want the training/experience aspect of it, then there are very few starting roles that will serve you better and open more doors.
For me, it comes down to how much I enjoy the work and the people I work with, as well as how clear the path ahead/career progression is. I am in an industry coverage group, so the fortunes of the industry and future deal-making are always top of mind for me. It helps that I know M&A will always be M&A, so there is some consistency in the potential career path I could have if I stick around for 20 years or so. I worked in several buy-side roles during uni across different fund sizes ($100MM - $1.5B) and found aspects of each level that I enjoyed, but also several that I did not. Working with portcos to improve operations and discuss strategy was fantastic, but the messy diligence work and frustrations of inaccurate or outright misleading information in sourcing and acquisitions weren't quite as fantastic. I would also say that I prefer the workflow and eat-what-you-kill nature of IB more than the concept of staking my own and my partners' equity and earnings potential on a few companies that may or may not exit well. I suppose you could say it is a more risk-averse outlook on compensation and deal flow, with more execution work but less execution risk. On the the tail ends of both, there are significant differences in comp/wealth.
TLDR: If you want to get rich, both staying in IB or leaving for PE will get you there. If you care more about how the work affects you or the role you get to play/hats you get to wear in diligence and transactions, consider whether you want to be an investor with higher risk/reward, or an advisor with less skin in the game and a wider breadth of options/exits. Neither path is a bad path, and there are many very successful people who have done both, or have never taken either path.
Do it! Same age as you. I encourage everyone to make this reflection at some point and move from pure focus on building your career to moving it towards building the rest of yourself. Many of us will find that as a person we have neglected much of us including relationships and knowing ourselves.
I got a much better work life balance job outside of NYC...After a year or two of grinding on the new job to start off on good footing, at some point I realized I don't know what I want as a person. I really spent a ton of time working on myself and I found I had neglected myself. I didn't know what I wanted in my life outside of work. I spent time building soft skills, put some time into dating. Put time into pure fun and new experiences. Got involved in the community. Invest in all of yourself and your career is just one facet.
Wholesome post. Need more like this on WSO
Congrats man and thanks for sharing
Can you provide some more color on your decision process? Was there a specfic NW target you were waiting to hit? Did you give any heads up to your firm or did you just show up one day and hand in your resignation? What was the firm's reaction?
At a certain point, I realized I have enough saved up, and I’ll always be able to make money because I’m good at working, and so I felt confident enough to dip. And so I showed up at work and said thanks guys, it’s been real, but I’m out. And they knew it wasn’t to go to a competitor, they knew it was about deciding to start writing a new chapter in the book of life, and so it was a graceful exit. They accelerated some of my vesting and gave me a few months of pay and said we’ll be here for you if you need anything, we wish you well.
I appreciate your candor; it seems like you deserved this respite. As you decide what to do after the grind, I'm sending you my best wishes.
Honestly, this was really refreshing to read. It takes guts to step away, especially after achieving so much and grinding for so long. Sounds like you're finally giving yourself the space to breathe and figure things out on your own terms — and that’s something a lot of people never do. Wishing you the best as you start this new chapter. You’ve earned it.
Makes me happy to see folks make the change. It's less of a "walking away" and more of a "waking up". A nest egg helps but it isn't necessary. Once you get out there in the "real world" you'll find you have all the skills to figure things out on your own. The real world is filled with a million different niches where you can apply your skills to start something new. That being said, Corp Dev, however, feels more like a halfway house than the real world.
W in chat
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