Bored of PE, what next?
Hi all,
Posting under a burner account. Basically have been working in PE for the past 3 years or so, started at a small fund which has grown decently over the past few years. We're still small, ~$500AUM, but good performance from early funds, good LPs, and line of sight to at least a few more funds. I'm a Senior Associate and on track for VP next year with decent carry in the fund.
With all that being said, I'm honestly pretty bored with the job. Given the size of the fund, I've basically had to do everything over the past 3 years, have worked every single deal we've worked on(5+), hired new associates, trained new associates, led deals, sourced deals, heavily involved with Portco ops, fundraising, etc. The deal structures don't change that much, so its basically the same type of stuff everytime I do a deal. The comp is below market and probably won't change given the size of the funds/firm. I do have carry, but given the vesting schedule, even when I look at some of the strong potential exits we could have in the next few years, the carry vests 10% a year, so I'm probably only looking at a mid 5 figure carry check, best case scenario.
Basically my next step at the firm is just to keep sourcing deals and doing deals, maybe with the slight exception that I should really start acting as a principal/partner in that I'm expected to source my own deals and lead my own deals and will be responsible for 1 every 1/2 years.
Maybe I'm just being a bratty mid 20s professional, but I feel like I want more out of the job. Anyone have thoughts? Should I just suck it up and give it a few more years, jump funds, go into industry?
Hi peburner2018, whoops, looks like nobody chimed in here.... maybe one of these discussions below is relevant:
Fingers crossed that one of those helps you.
Figure out what you're truly passionate about and what challenges you then leverage your current skill set to obtain the best offer. The advice is somewhat rudimentary, yet powerful when applied correctly. There are plenty of mid-20s investment professionals in similar positions to where you are today that are all contemplating what's next in their career.
This may not be relevant to you, as it's going to vary significantly with your appetite for risk. I admittedly have a fairly high personal risk tolerance. If, and arguably, when I leave my current fund, it would likely be for entrepreneurship through acquisition. For the right company, I would be willing to risk the personal guarantee on a few million in debt and go buy a $1mm EBITDA business and try to grow it. Allows you to leverage your PE skillset (particularly if you've had some good ops exposure), and capture the value you create. I personally think it would be awesome.
Separately, are you sure that's the way your carry works? You mention that you're vesting ~10% a year, which sounds fine, but does it not accelerate on liquidity events? Seems like if you do a deal, kill it and exit after three years, your carry would be accelerated up from 30%...
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