Would you sacrifice bonus to make the jump to PE?

If you had a chance to move to a decent/globally known PE fund (not a MF), but it would mean leaving more than half a years worth of bonus behind, would you do it?

Wondering if people have done this before

18 Comments
 

How much is that "half"? I just want to clarify; because no PE firm, worth their modern-day salt, should be as disrespectful as this begs to imagine.

 

Was on a similar situation. The UMM/MF offers a sign on that’s largely in line with the half year foregone bonus.

 

I remember when I landed an offer to exit IB to CD and the firm was pushing for me to start soon (got the offer at the beginning of Spring) and I asked if there were willing to compensate for the bonus I would be leaving on the table.

They said see you in the Summer and told them I was looking forward to seeing them at that time.

In your case, that feels too much like a heavy lift to do so. Could you work out something with the PE given the comp being left on the table?

 
Most Helpful

Feels a bit harsh for starting off a potential employment relationship. 

Not sure what I would do in your position. I guess it comes down to how much do you value this opportunity over the compensation you would be forgoing?

You could always look for other opportunities that are more flexible for start dates given the comp you are walking away from but this requires a high degree of confidence in your ability to land similar roles (AKA bet on yourself like Fred VanVleet).

 

Potentially some other levers you can pull. What is the fund's bonus cycle that you are going to?   You could try to negotiate getting more credit towards a full year bonus.  

For example if they are on calendar years, you could negotiate 3 months of PE bonus which you would receive on back-end during bonus season.  

Also is this a non-standard outcome for your group?  Like a big step up?  Cause that should play as well. 

 

They have made it clear there won’t be room to negotiate, but have agreed I’ll get 2months bonus when June bonus cycle comes.

I keep telling myself that whilst losing a chunk of my bonus this year is a lot of money now, it will quite literally be the smallest bonus vs what I’ll get in the years to come (should I be thinking this way?)

My groups exit is definitely strong, have seen MF exits and top fund exits over the years. That said, I rank myself below those who have left and after considering my own profile overall would say this is a strong move for me. So am quite willing to bite the bullet and secure the move

 

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