Leaving IB - How to Exit Gracefully?
Monkeys! Good news, I finally landed a role in PE (thanks WSO). Bad news is now I need to quit, which is something I have never done in a professional setting before.
Background: I start in a few months (late/mid-summer) and will be joining a firm well known by my team. I have really enjoyed my experience in my group and really got on with my team members (from Analysts to Team Lead) so want make sure that I leave properly and don't create any bad blood or feelings of ill will. My concern is that 2 weeks is not enough time for them to properly re-staff the team and have me "gracefully" walk away from the things I am staffed on. Further, I have a vested interest in not creating any frustration since I will be asking my team lead to write me a recommendation for Grad school in a few years (he is aware that this is something I want to do).
Do any of you have any recommendations about how to exit properly? Should I raise this now or in the next few weeks, ~1 to 1.5 months earlier than I would if I just tossed in my 2 weeks?
Appreciate any and all thoughts. Even if it's just stories about how people have blown their resignation.
As long as there is no changes to your bonus payment you can give as much notice as you want. To the extent it is possible your group would fuck you on your bonus then I would say just drop in the 2 weeks (if even that, depending on start date and bonus timing)
Congrats on the offer. It seems like your only fear is that there may be ill will. In that case, I would give a month’s notice so they have ample time to gradually remove you from deals. Good luck in PE!
Sounds like you’ve gotten lucky and work at a place with decent people. With that said, absolutely do not do anything to potentially fuck up your bonus. As much as I’m sure you did for your team, the fact of the matter is this is not a friendly industry and unless you are the person that brought in a client you are easily replaceable - I wouldn’t worry about giving them more than 2 weeks notice. If things started going poorly for the firm and there were headcount reductions that needed to be made, do you think they would give you a month heads up about letting you go?
DO NOT do anything that will fuck w/ your bonus. Not exactly the same situation but I ran into something kinda similar when I left banking (https://www.wallstreetoasis.com/forums/biggest-professional-regret).
Appreciate the link! Super helpful to be cautious of / aware that people behave like in your story and sorry you got treated that way. Fortunately, my bonus got paid out a few months back so am not leaving any money on the table. Just want to not leave them hanging on things that I'm leading day-to-day because I know the pain won't be shared evenly lol.
Your tag says that you are an associate, not an analyst. If that's the case, I assume bonus should not be an issue at all since presumably you already received that some time in the past couple of months. Assuming that you are indeed an associate, does your firm have a garden leave period? Since you'll be moving from banking to private equity, as soon as you tell them you are leaving, they might actually want you out the door ASAP so that any nonpublic information you have can start to go stale (which is really the point of the garden leave policy in the first place). So they might just ask you to stick around for a day or two to help transition things (which will eat into your garden leave), but I would not assume that they'll want you to stick around for a month or even a full week once you tell them that you will be resigning.
Essentially, I would let them know that you are resigning once you are at a point where you would be comfortable leaving that day. I would check your notice / garden leave policy and make sure that you are leaving enough time post-resignation to clear that period before you start the new job. I wouldn't be overly concerned with being too gracious in terms of helping transition things and would frankly encourage getting as much time off as possible while still collecting as much pay as you need to survive. Said differently, if your garden leave is 2 weeks, and you are not starting until August, you might want to take two weeks if you need every paycheck, or you might want to take two months if you have plenty of buffer cash.
If you're actually an analyst, this is all different and it seems pretty bank-specific. The bank I worked at, it was considered a normal expectation that analysts would be taking PE jobs, and you have to go through a number of hoops to even get a third year offer, so letting people know what PE firm you're joining after you finish your two year stint is completely normal course and has no impact on bonuses as long as you agree to stay until whatever standard window HR has set to be eligible for the full bonus.
Really appreciate the super thorough response! Yes, my bonus got paid out a few months back so is not an issue for this decision. Fortunately, the firm I'm at doesn't have a garden leave policy for people at my level (especially given WFH). Historically it's not been uncommon for people to transition longer than the normal two weeks but your emails and files get a little more scrutiny. I am more concerned about the hand off, especially for deals that I lead on a day-to-day basis and making sure that we hit the upcoming deadlines that will occur in the next bit. Ya, I am trying to maximize my time off but also realize I'd probably go crazy if I had "nothing" to do for over three months.
Got it. In that case, I would not personally mention anything to your team until you would be comfortable leaving at any point between that day and two weeks after that day. That said, the norms at your firm sound a bit different than they were at mine, so I'd also perhaps suggest reaching out to any former colleagues that left in similar circumstances and ask about their experience, to the extent there are any that you have good relationships with. I resigned from IB recently to join a PE firm, and having some of those types of conversations was helpful for me (although didn't really end up having a major impact on how I ultimately approached things).
Thanks all for the useful tips! I've also heard that people don't usually disclose the next shop they're going to post banking. Is this something common that you've seen? Or is it best practice to share the name of your next employer?
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