Private Equity Associate - flailing in my role
When I am being completely honest with myself and reflecting on how I have performed in the first 7 months of my role at a reputable MM PE fund (major city), I realize that I am not cut out for this job. I won't get too deep into the details of my significant shortcomings as an associate, but I make consistent mistakes, am slower than the other associates, and have general trouble engaging in the projects that I am staffed on. I wouldn't say that I am falling short enough that I have felt pressure to perform better or be let go, but I would realistically say there's a 99% chance that my contract would not be renewed at the end of my two years.
This all has occasioned some pretty deep self reflection lately. I have come to the conclusion that private equity (in an investing role) is not the right place for me. I am confident in my analytical abilites and intelligence / work ethic, but I find the job incredibly boring and have no motivation to get better. The hours are also worse than when I was a banking analyst, which is something I am severely jaded by.
I am looking to Wall Street Oasis, which has been a beacon of career knowledge for me for some time, to help me figure out the best path forward. I have considered lateraling into an early stage investing role, investor relations, FoF / secondaries, and even exploring opportunities on the sell side where a better work life balance is achievable. This job has been very taxing on my mental and physical health, so ideally I want to leave sooner than later. What is the best approach for pursuing something else for someone that probably won't have shining references, but a solid resume (and I would tangentially add very good interviewing skills; seems that I faked it until I made it to this point after all...). Additionally, how do I spint this story to recruiters? I greatly appreciate any input on this situation I have found myself in!
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Do you consider Corporate Development? You would get a better work life balance in a job that is also analytical/transactional but the analysis itself is probably much more strategic and rewarding as you only focus on 1 company to see it grow and develop. Comp will probably be lower but if you don’t like pure investing then maybe “corporate” investing will suit you better.
I have definitely considered it and would be open to the option. I am okay with less compensation, but I do want to be able to live a comfortable life in my major city, which is difficult to do in the long term with compensation under the ~$300k mark. Maybe this is attainable in corp dev? I'm not sure honestly as I'm not super informed on the compensation levels in corp dev. Right now, I'm in the 230-275k ballpark for all in compensation. In my next role, I'd hope to at least be in the 150-200k range, so certainly willing to take a cut. I just don't want to completely slash my earnings down.
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Why not look into direct lending / credit investing? Great comp (80-100% of what you would make in PE) with 10-15 less hours a week. Average week is ~60 hours a week with a few ~50 hour weeks and if you make it to partner level, you’re still making 7 figures and doing interesting work with less stress than that of a PE investor.
why not look to go into buyside hedge fund equity research? the hours are much better and comp has a wide range with significant upside...
Yeah I would focus my efforts on either corp dev or direct lending. Both seem like the next logical "step down" from PE and related enough where you can parlay your experience without all of a sudden jumping too far into something unrelated to your prior career trajectory.
Maybe the best way is to think about the different aspects of the current role (and banking before this) and figure out which aspects you like and which you don't like. It's easy enough to say "go into a FoF role," but that's basically staying in the same industry and looking at it from different perspective, with lower hours. If you genuinely don't find the work in direct investing to be interesting, I can't imagine you would love FoF or secondaries. Did you enjoy banking and the work there or not really?
I'm curious as to what your hours have been like in MM PE vs. banking?
What did you decide on and how did it go?
I (and several people i know) are currently interviewing ~despite~ a legitimate fear that we are putting ourselves in an identical situation to what you are describing
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