Hey all - I was fortunate enough to receive a job offer at a MM PE fund with a summer '21 start date. I really want to take some time off between my current banking job and my new job. How long is too long? I could probably take off up to 6 months but am leaning more towards taking 4 months off. Any and all advice would be appreciated. For reference, I have already worked 2 years at my bank and bonus payout is incoming so no worries there. I am a little worried I may get bored after a month or two off, but honestly would be so happy to do anything other than keep working my banking job.
Thanks
Check with a pe firm. I know one guy took a year off before his and worked in Corp dev, know one guy that traveled for 4 months. Depends on bonus and start date I guess
If they've told you that you can start after labor day, why not just wait until then? I think you'll regret not taking this time while you have it and I personally don't like starting in the throes of summer anyway, so there's no real benefit starting a month or two early in July-August.
Yes that is what I am thinking I will do. The more important question for me is when to quit current banking job. Honestly I am so over banking that I am ready to quit yesterday. How long is too much time off?
I'd put in notice as soon as the bonus $ hits your account. No benefit in staying longer than that. I had about a month off only when I jumped to PE back in the day and have always wished I had a chance to take more (my bank was petty and made me stay for longer). It'll probably be your last chance at true unstructured, unaccounted for time (maybe unless you go to b-school, but even then you won't get 6 months of uninterrupted free time) for the rest of your career.
Thanks for the response. I think you are right. I just worry about getting bored. In normal times I’d go on a world trip but due to COVID I will likely stay around North America... I also am worried what a 6 month gap on my resume may look like for future job prospects or MBA applications. Also something else on my mind is I’m about to close a deal and thought it would be good to have it fully closed before I left, maybe it doesn’t matter in the end since I basically worked on the whole deal anyways.
Your PE firm might expect you to take a "reasonable" break (read: 1 months and I pushed it to 2 without mentioning) rather than 6 months, although I would have loved 6 months personally. Maybe you can use COVID / family as an excuse to do 6. In addition to other concerns you mentioned, I would try to make sure you're covered on that front.
This is a fair point and appreciate you raising it. They never mentioned anything about a break between or anything of that nature. As far as I am concerned they will never know whether i take 6 weeks or 6 months
Unless they ping you in March to ask how your last few month at ___ are going. Are you gonna lie? Easy way to get off on the wrong foot.
Wish I was bearing better news.
No I would definitely not lie - I would say I just quit and am taking some much needed time off. My thought process was if they were concerned about me taking off too much time in between then I think they would have outlined in my offer that I am to work up until x months before I start or until a certain date. Since it was not included I am assuming it is not that important to them.
It's pretty implicit that you will continue doing your IB training....
After all, most hires are now ~6 months into IB and made for start dates ~18 months out (in typical on-cycle recruiting), do you think they would be okay with taking 18 months off instead of grinding through those IB hours?
Anyways, respect for having the guts, and let's travel together in 2021 LOL
Fair enough - there are more details I could share but don't want to give away too much information. Let's just say I have plenty of training. I get your point and its a good one, and I do appreciate it because ultimately I am looking for other points of view so thank you for that.
Also it's much different when you are accepting a job 18 months out AND you are also fresh on the job. Those kids probably aren't even the sole analyst on their deals yet. I think my learning experience / training is at its peak at my level and the only thing I am losing by leaving is my salary that I would collect for a few more months.
I am really curious if anyone has had this blow back at them... Take off more time than the PE shop had expected and how it went down once they started the job. Ultimately this is my last time to have time away from work with no family and not many real responsibilities... I think in the future I would rather look back and think about how I took off a bunch of time between banking and PE (wish i could travel the world), maybe my next employer wasn't too happy but at the end of the day I joined the company, did a great job and nobody gave a shit.
I took 2 months off and my god what a wonderful time. After a while though I started to feel miss a paycheck. I think 3 months is an optimal amount unless you have a project. Like you're writing a book or learning guitar or something. Otherwise you may feel lazy af.
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