Brokerage - tell your boss you are leaving?
Looking to make a jump from IS brokerage to the principal side, and wondering if I should ask for my boss's help with contacts and placement, or to just start reaching out to clients directly and then have it possibly get back to him. Interested in hearing arguments both for and against, especially from those who have done so.
It depends on the kind of relationship you have with your boss. Sooner or later, he is the first one who should know you are leaving. Him hearing it from clients is not a positive situation and reflects poorly on him and you.
Pros
If you have a good relationship with him, and you have done great work so far, the team wouldn't fall apart without you, he knows you have to leave in order to grow, etc... then it might help to tell him early on so he might help you. In fact, if you move on to a client they need a closer connection to, it might work out great.
Cons
Your team is counting on you a lot more than you think, your boss wants you to deliver more work going forward, he is grooming you to be a more senior member in the team or even have his job one day, etc - not a great option to ask for any help. Explain why you are making a move.
We had this situation all the time in RE funds or people moved from buy side to sell side etc. It is normal that people want to grow and want to see something new in order to stay motivated.
Thank you!
I'm about to have this convo tomorrow. Client reached out to me and made a pretty good offer that I accepted. Senior agent does not know I am looking to leave.
good luck! let us know how it goes
Went well
I would tell him. Going through the same thing now at my shop and told them, he was receptive but a little disappointed I didn’t want to stay. Overall positive experience and well worth it
Not going through this now but will be in the future.
How do you guys have this convo, especially when your boss is a great dude in and outside of work?
Be candid about why you want to work on the principal side (nature of the work, not a natural salesmen, not a “deal junkie”, etc.) and tell him you’ll send him business in the future and it should go over well
I would definitely not ask a senior person on your brokerage team for help leaving. Maybe if you were two middle management people on the buy side but the broker is basically running his own business and has invested time (basically the only valuable resource he has) into training you and making you a productive part of the team. Thats not to say the person wont be happy to see you leave to a good principal.
I did this when I was moving cities for personal reasons, and he was a huge help. Staying local could be a little trickier, and it could be a little more sensitive/dependent on your relationship with the broker. That said, whether they admit it or not, they only expect to have their analysts for 2-3 years generally and they know that some of the kids they hire want to be on the principal side and it is to their benefit to help you find a good landing spot.
One way to navigate it is to just be blunt and transparent, and you probably have a 75% of it going well (although expect to get stiffed on any remaining bonuses). Another is to frame it is by asking for a career path conversation or something, and then mention that you are interested in getting some principal-side experience before returning to brokerage, and ask for their opinion on that and my guess is that conversation naturally flows the way you want it to.
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