Wondering if I should leave my current summer role with the Fed (not in a major city like NYC/CHI/SF) to pursue an opportunity to work at a newer/small PE firm in my hometown. This is my current thought process:
Reasons to leave
-
The work is not technical and extremely slow-paced. Involves analyzing the financial statements of banks and some accounting concepts here and there. I am not learning much.
-
I'm in a location I don't like. Going home would be great, as I haven't
spent much time there in the past 2 years between school, internships, and study abroad. -
PE opportunity is more financially relevant. Grinded during the school year with the goal to land at a boutique IBD or PE firm this summer, and fell short despite my networking efforts. This same PE firm was not interested beforehand, but now are willing to bring me in due to more deals = more work.
Reasons to stay
- The name. Does this really matter? Well, I have heard it both ways. A positive reference from them would be well received.
- It may be enough to leverage into M&A or LevFin on its own. LinkedIn proves its not likely, but definitely possible.
- Possibility of getting "blacklisted" system-wide. Bridges will be burned. Not sure how often they actually blackball people, but I will probably not ever return to the public sector regardless.
All opinions are appreciated.
As long as you've been at your internship for longer than a summer/semester it's alright to leave. You're still young
Unfortunately thats not the case. 5 weeks in.
My advice: Pull through.
The benfits associated with quitting and initially starting from 0 again at another adress, which is not considered excessively more reputable (including the fact that you ruin relationships with your current employer) would have to outweigh the benefits of commiting to the job you started, pulling through, owning it and getting great references + life-time relationships.
I know it can be frustrating not to be challenged enough, but try to see it as an opportunity to excel. Keep yourself busy, try to find new tasks for yourself that might benefit your team if you have idle capacities, be a team player and show them loyalty - for which you will be rewarded at some point in time. Additionally, while your work hours can be expected to be less demanding, you can use off-time to do many things: e.g. improve your academic knowledge (if necessary, this could mean plowing through literature after work). It sure does require some discipline, but it is completely in your hands to make your time there more demanding.
Also, there's no guarantee that the smaller PE shop will turn out to give you significantly more valuable tasks / resonsibility.
Lastly, imho sh*t like that really helps shape your character. You will look back in a couple of years and think: "Not only did i pull through, but i managed to take the hand i've been dealt and turn it around into something positive." I sincerely believe this is something to be proud of and you might consider it somewhat formative a few years down the road.
Best of success in any case, i hope it all works out for you.
Thanks for the seriously helpful advice, weit. I hope you're right and this can work.
We are already deep into June. Unless you actually have an exit option, stay. The experience will still be relevant on paper.
They've offered to bring me in for the remainder of the summer (now through Aug.)
Feds watching
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