How much notice to give when leaving trading desk for MBA?
Fellow monkeys,
Was accepted to a top school for an MBA program, commencing this Fall. I am working in a trading team at a fairly large investment firm and I am wondering what is the appropriate notice length to give to my boss.
For more color, my role is front-office, involving investment research and trade idea generation. The firm has regular turnover, nice environment, people who leave usually give two weeks, but when they do, they leave for competitors rather than MBA (don't know anyone to have left my group to pursue MBA).
Why longer notice? To not burn bridges, and given that I know already that I am leaving for B-school, it might be awkward if I only tell my team in the summer, they might wonder why I didn't say anything earlier, to plan replacement etc.
Why shorter notice? Don't want to risk being forced to leave earlier (firm might want to protect proprietary information, not risk me screwing up something on purpose) and still want to work until the summer (for financial reasons, the looming debt makes me not afford to just hang around in NYC without a job). My relationship with my team is very good, but you can never be too sure in this business. Also, even if I can stay until the summer, it might be awkward to keep working, people might question my motivation etc.
I appreciate your thoughts on this. Also I know trading world is different than other industries, but do welcome thoughts of how people in e.g. banking/consulting would approach this.
Thanks!
P.S. Please stay on topic, don't comment on why I am leaving, reasons to pursue the MBA or not. The only variable is notice length. Thanks.
how large is your team/how easy would it be for them to continue without you? if it would be a major hit to the desk they might want to keep you on until they find a good replacement so in a case like that you could get away with letting them know earlier on.
my thoughts would be that they would probably ask you to leave earlier if you give them a lot of notice just to avoid the potential of you lacking motivation/commitment to producing quality work, and getting someone else up to speed as quickly as possible
Do they know nothing about your plans to pursue the MBA? If they are completely clueless then i would let them know sooner than later. I think you'd burn bridges if you told them about this while preparing for a long time for it. I eco what the above person said, also depends on how much they rely on you. I would have a good conversation with your manager and I think logical explanation of why you decided to attend (but u don't have to) would make him accept your decision as his own.
would they hesitate 2 seconds to fire you? trust me they won't care
hopefully your team will not so dumb as to ask you to leave early - burning bridges goes both way. If the normal notice is 2 weeks, just give them 6 weeks. Its three times what the standard notice is a will give them plenty of time to look for somebody else and get organised. And 6 weeks is not such a long time if you find it awkward / uncomfortable to stick around. I wouldn't give any more than that though!
Even 4 weeks would be doing them a favour if what's required is 2 weeks. Just tell them you wanted to let them know early so as to minimise the trouble for them.
i'd do it in the summer, early / mid...2-3 months before you start school. it's early enough that you look like you're not being sneaky about it and possibly avoid burning bridges; it's late enough that if they decide to fuck you it won't make a difference
if you're trying to leave earlier than that, then back it up a bit, but i'd try and be open about staying while they find a replacement etc
When are your bonuses paid? Don't do it before then.
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