Should I tell the PE firm I am recruiting for if I have gotten into grad school?

Title says all.

Next month, I will be interviewing with a PE job I quite like and also applying to grad school. If I get the job, then by the time I join, I will have already received an acceptance/rejection from the school. So if everything goes well I really only plan to stay ~1 year at this next job. 

Should I flag that I am applying to school during the recruitment process? Or is it better to stay silent? If I stay silent and then give my notice next summer that I am heading back to school...I'm just concerned they would think I'm quite snake-y for hiding it from them, since it would be pretty obvious I applied a year ago. 

I would like the door to be open to me to come back to the same firm in another office after I finish grad school (so would love to have my managers vouch for me), so I don't want to burn bridges. Is there any way for me to navigate this without taking an L on any front? If I kill it in the year I'm there, have a great attitude, be loved by all, but then drop the news to my boss in a really apologetic manner, what are the chances my reputation stays intact?  

Thanks

 
Most Helpful

Honesty may not get you the outcome you want, but it will never bite you in the ass. I think deceit will leave a bad taste in some folks’ mouth in this case.

FWIW a few years ago a friend of mine recruiting to lateral and also for PE at the same time and ended up with both offers; he told his bank he would like to accept but would only be there for a year before PE; he told the PE firm he had recruited simultaneously and asked for permission to lateral for a year until his PE role. Both the bank and the PE firm assented to the agreement 

 

Honestly doesn't make sense to tell them. Yes, you absolutely do risk them being a bit pissed off in a year when you leave, so you'll have to know that going in.  However, at least in my view, you leaving after 1 year makes you a significantly weaker candidate.  I'm assuming they would like the person they are hiring to stay with the firm for at least 2 years if not longer?  If they are looking at you side by side vs. other candidates who don't have your circumstances, it's a pretty easy decision for them to not make you an offer, I would think.  

 

Thank you for your response here. Does the same apply to a first-year analyst fresh out of college who has been accepted to HBS 2+2/Stanford Deferred and is going through PE on-cycle recruiting? Would it help or hurt a candidate in front of a HH when you tell them that you have a tier 1 b-school lined up 4-5 years down the line? 

 

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