I just quit my investment banking gig after 5-6 years for a variety of reasons. Partly personal (e.g., mental and physical health, wanting more time and flexibility, etc.) and professional (want to make a transition into something different). I was an analyst for 3 years and an associate for 2.5 years. Could have been a VP but thought it wasn't worth it and wanted to pursue things outside of investment banking.
Does anyone have any similar experiences? What do people do now? Buyside would be interesting but honestly I would personally rather take a more relaxed job and work less and have more flexibility (Corp Dev?).
I think I need a plan, but I also want to take a mental break from work. Any advice would be appreciated.
A VP in our group literally quit after bonuses were paid and is planning on going on a lengthy vacation and transitioning into government.
This is amazing.
First of all, unless you have a wife/family, take a couple months to travel. You won't get the opportunity again for a long, long time, if ever. Then think about joining a promising early stage startup. You'll work hard but not as hard as you've been working (and it will be spent building something, instead of putting out fires / scrambling for clients). You probably have a few bucks put away, so suck up the salary cut but negotiate for as much equity as possible. After a few years you'll have learned a ton, opened a lot of doors for yourself, and have vested equity that might give you a nice payout. This last part is less common than it looks, but so are a lot of things.
Definitely agree with both of these points, particularly around making sure you give yourself time to relax. As scary as it is to just check out and not think about work for a while, it'll help you recharge and allow you to think more holistically about your career and the options around you. Also, it'll give you time to explore ideas and opportunities you may miss if you're solely focused on finding your next, very specific, gig.
Thanks FellowTraveler, that is super helpful. I will plan a trip to somewhere where I typically can't go. Never took 2 consecutive weeks off in my entire career so far.
Start up seems interesting, but how do you get in front of them? Are they looking for people with IB experience? Mine is in a very niche industry so I'm not sure how relevant my M&A experience would be for a start up.
I'm also considering more of a corporate development type of a route as well. Does it matter if I took a break if I were to try and break into a corporate development type role?
You could check out AngelList to find interesting startups, or hit up any friends in the space. Startup people know startup people. Also, if you're in NY or another major city, they'll be MeetUps and other local events that will attract startup founders. Later-stage startups will have corporate finance/M&A/fundraising groups that will look for people with your background.
I don't think it matters if you take a short break. People will get it after you've been in banking for that long. You could definitely land a corp dev job, probably as a Senior Manager but possibly even Director, and make mid to high $100s working ~50 hours/week.
To access startups you can hit up local angel investment groups and accelerator programs, search on Crunchbase or any regional entrepreneurship publications (like Builtin.com), look up local VC rounds that have closed. Startups definitely need people with IB experience for financial modeling and fundraising. I know a couple of former bankers who consult with startups to build models, etc.
Thanks all - you guys are fantastic. I think I will take one or two months off to just travel and just explore what opportunities are out there.
I will definitely look into AngelList and see what start ups may be interesting. But for corporate development, how do people usually break in? Is it similar to breaking into IB from undergrad, such as cold calling / emailing current people in the industry?
It's been a while since I've recruiter (last time since I graduated from school) so any help would be appreciated.
What kind of companies do you cover in your IB job? What vertical are you in? The corp dev (or biz dev) route is a good idea. Most startups will put someone in that position pretty early, and it's ideal for someone with M&A experience, if you have some. You could also look into IR roles, but that's a bit more of a silo, and is limited to large and usually public companies. I don't think anyone's going to ding you for having taken time off.
How much do you have saved? I know that’s a personal question, but I’m actually curious. It would really help me to understand the savings I could have in IB vs if I stay in my industry.
I will PM you :).
also interested
Do you feel scared/nervous that you're disadvantaged by being unemployed in your job hunt?
Honestly, I don't know. I would say it's definitely a different feeling. The worry comes from the uncertainty of what to do next, but I really needed the break. My reasoning for leaving wasn't performance at all but more of my personal choice to leave (personal + professional as stated above).
I've had friends get laid off (due to both downsizing and performance-related) and somehow get back into the finance industry. I've also had a friend who left banking and after 9 months joined a corporate development team.
I think it's a legitimate disadvantage but there was also no way I could properly explore other opportunities and see what else was out there if I was still working in IB.
I am currently going weighing the same decision as you for the reason you stated above.
Best of luck. Hope you get to where you want to be RonaldBacon.
-XSX
bump - does anyone have or have seen any similar experiences?
Yes - I'm currently in the back half of a year long sabbatical. At the end of this, I will be moving to another continent to continue working in tech.
I took the first 4-6 months to relax and decompress- my daily routine looked something like this:
Wake up late, go for a morning walk & espresso, meet a friend/date for lunch (there is an insane amount of attractive, available women walking around major cities during the day), nap, read a bit, play some video games, maybe hit the gym, go out for a cheap & cheerful dinner, watch a movie, sleep, repeat.
I took the time to take care of some nagging health issues via physio and massage therapy, fixed my diet (and lost 15 pounds!), got rid of some toxic/unhealthy relationships, and generally cleaned up my life.
After relaxing, I spent a week in the Czech Republic, a month in the Middle East (Israel), and 2 weeks in Japan (Tokyo & Kyoto) during cherry blossom season. I was hoping to do another 2 weeks in China + 2 in Australia but I'm high maintenance and spent way more cash at high end hotels (i.e. the Mandarin Oriental and the Andaz in Tokyo) and restaurants (i.e. M25 in Tel Aviv) than reasonable, so I had to postpone those plans.
Now I'm slowly tying up loose ends, doing a bit of informal consulting for some cash, and generally living a healthy, well-balanced life. This is all good stuff.
As for the bad? I work on the business side, and although it's not nearly as rigid as finance, there is still a "track" in big tech - I won't be able to rejoin a Google/Salesforce/Microsoft/Facebook for 4-5 years, and unless I get lucky with equity (and make no mistake, having paper turn to gold at a startup is luck), I'll be taking a very significant pay cut for the next several years.
I can't speak for everyone and my situation is a little unique, but I imagine that for most people, the longer they take out of the workforce, the more "theta decay" they will experience.
For me it was 100% worth it and I wouldn't have it any other way, but I can see how it would not make sense for everyone.
As for getting in front of a startup, you can just show up at meetups/events/offices and speak to people.
Questions for you: what kind of work are you willing & capable of doing? What are your salary and job title requirements? What size company fits your personality? What problems do you find interesting?
If you're only interested in well established mostly-de-risked multi-billion dollar "startups" with healthy salaries that can leverage your analytical skills with well defined job requirements, Uber & AirBnB would be good places to look.
Reach out to ALL your relevant professional contacts and proactively take command of the narrative:
"Hey! So, I took the plunge - I've left banking.
We left on good terms, as the firm understood my personal and professional reasons. The personal I'm going to take care of with 100 days of traveling around the world (no need to do it in 80). Professionally, my goals are oriented towards corporate development.
How would you feel about slotting in a call sometime during the next 100 days? I can be flexible around your schedule - who knows what time zone I'll be in - and I'm very much looking forward to getting new ideas and being pointed in interesting directions."
Most people will want to stay in touch out of the sheer instinct to vicariously live through your exploits.
Good advice.
As for how to find start ups, go where they go. Coworking spaces, university innovation labs, hit up your college and see if they have one. Volunteer to be an expert in residence, you can meet hundreds of founders that way and you can even end with with things from advisory positions and consulting contracts all the way to an equity position on the team. The great part about going the volunteer EIR route is that it will give you visibility into many start ups and get a better understanding for how the culture works and give you a bit of a trial run to see if that life style is right for you. Shouldn't take you more than a semester to figure it out and will give you much experience in a very short period of time that you could possibly transfer into a VC or Corporate venture group. It could also let you know that its not for you and you can take that experience to something like corp dev.
I know someone who quit their IBD gig after only a couple of years into the job, they took the whole summer off and didn’t start going to interviews until about 6/7 months after they quit.
They ended up getting employed at a fund, 14 months from the date they quit.
Providing you still come across as capable, I don’t think it’s an issue.... obviously does get harder though the longer you stay out of work.
the corp dev director at my shop is basically just cold calling all day
Is he/she cold calling to find potential candidates? Can you elaborate?
sorry just seen this. calling investors to encourage them to invest in our funds... selling the strategy and product I suppose. she doesn't seem to do much work if im being honest, she's at the end of her career... been at a few banks and has a top class MBA. but its the PM's that have brought in new investors recently so not sure how her role is justified.
I was an equity research analyst for a couple of years.
After I quit my job, I did a few things:
1) Traveled to discover my passion - that led to me to volunteer in Bangladesh and rural China in microfinance. 2) Lined up other jigs that I thought were interesting, and add on to my CV and become conversation starters for my job search down the road e.g., social impact startup, volunteering in the international Youth Olympics 3) Built up a system to rebuild my health and relationships - so that even if I move on to my next job, I know my lifestyle will be sustainable and not just about work.
This gave me more certainty about what's next for me after quitting my job.
Recently I also came across a free ebook written by an ex-investment banker for burnt out people like her, sharing tips on factors to consider before quitting a job. I wish I had read about it when I quit my job. It would have given me so much more clarity on how to move forward in my life.
Here's the link: http://bit.ly/burntoutlost
Hope it helps!
Come to Tech:
Hours are infinitely better
You will almost certainly make more money
You will build and create actual products
You'll be surrounded by passionate people that care about what they do, not about what kind of loafers you're wearing.
You'll get to live in one of the greatest parts of the world.
Need more reasons?
What do you do in tech? Sounds like maybe a project manager role.
There's also been some threads about how SF isn't actually that great, but working remotely (i.e. digital nomad) would be quite the draw for me.
Finally, my thread in the off-topic forum on burnout / life choices has received a lot of helpful responses: https://www.wallstreetoasis.com/forums/burnout-life-choices
--
OP, let's go start a search fund / travel the world together, you in?
I'm a product manager at one of the FANG's.
SF life is pretty great - don't let people who haven't lived here/lived here for ~a year influence your perception of it. It is the best balance of super smart, young, decently attractive people with normal lives in any of the big US cities.
What you do is talk to folks who do consulting and securitization. If you think that you might find happiness as a generalist, then these things might have some appeal to you.
Securitization is a little bit of everything.
Quitting IB role before getting a new job (Originally Posted: 05/23/2017)
I know it is never wise to quit your job before getting a new one but I am truly miserable in my IB role and would like to spend time finding the right buyside role. However, it is extremely hard to find and interview for jobs when you work 6 days a week and can't really leave your desk. Would it be a horrible move to quit before finding a new job? I would be comfortable being unemployed for 6 months if that's what it takes.
Yes it would be a horrible move, is it possible? Yes. Are the chances high? No. Also it is not a good look to interview with buyside firms if you are unemployed/quit your job.
Figuring Out Next Steps After Investment Banking (Originally Posted: 06/07/2018)
Hey Everyone - I am seeking the wisdom of the community.
So a touch of background about myself - I come from a target state school (think Michigan, Penn State, Ohio State) in the honors program of the college with ~3.9 graduating GPA. I'm about to begin my BB analyst stint in a BB M&A group (Citi/BofA/WFC).
Obviously I realize that banking isn't forever and that recruiting for opportunities outside of banking roles around pretty fast - so what I was wondering is how did those of you that have exited banking go about deciding what you wanted to do - IE private equity / hedge fund / corporate development / VC? I am trying to avoid just going with the heard mentality of buy side recruiting and really understand what I am looking for also keeping in mind what is realistic based on my background.
A few things I know about myself:
I would greatly appreciate your perspective on how you thought about the process. Thanks for your help.
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