Up for promotion to senior associate - ask for a sabbatical?

Partners called me into a meeting with them a few weeks back and told me I'd be up for promotion for senior associate at my MM PE firm. My class has 2 other associates - one girl is leaving for Wharton MBA and the other guy is going to a VC firm we are associated with, so it's really just me left.

Reason I ask is because recently a couple college friends have started their first or second significant job changes around our ages (24-27) and frankly just having no worries for a while sounds amazing. I had a weird start date on my move from IB to PE so I didn't really get a chance to take time off there, so the last time I've really just had a few weeks off is right after college graduation which was 5.5 years ago. I've been thinking about asking for a short sabbatical upon promotion to senior associate - does anyone have experience with this? If so, what's an appropriate length of time to ask for? 2 weeks? 3? 4+?

5 Comments
 
Best Response

Since 2 associates are leaving/already left, are there any other associates? I assume you hired a new class? If so, I think it's definitely a reasonable request. Offer to train the new class of associates (1-2 weeks), then you should be good.

I, like you, had an unconventional start date as well and I just had this conversation with the partners at my firm in November.

 

One other associate left, but he has only been here a few months so we're not really on the same track. He'd be fully up to speed by the time I took any significant time off. We also have someone starting this summer as an associate coming out of IB. Offering to train the new guy sounds like a good idea.

How did your convo go with the partners? Did you get any pushback? Also curious to hear how long you targeted to take off.

 
"CHItizen"

One other associate left, but he has only been here a few months so we're not really on the same track. He'd be fully up to speed by the time I took any significant time off. We also have someone starting this summer as an associate coming out of IB. Offering to train the new guy sounds like a good idea.

How did your convo go with the partners? Did you get any pushback? Also curious to hear how long you targeted to take off.

ill PM

 

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