When is the right time to leave consulting?
Would you leave your familiar, management consulting job before hitting 2 years for a role at a fun, but risky, startup?
Professional Situation: 1.5 years at a Tier 4 (if that's a tier) healthcare management consulting firm. The name of the firm carries somewhat in pharma but not really anywhere else. There's a small chance that I'll be promoted in 2 months. I plan to apply to b-school in 5 months and have not asked for letters of rec from my current manager. If I stay, I might be able to land a letter of rec from a partner at my firm. The client work is no longer appealing to me and the work environment is somewhat toxic (think 40% firm-wide engagement level, misogyny, lack of cultural diversity). Recently, I've gotten a new mentor at the firm and have been put on a newer, more interesting team for 20 hours/ week.
Personal Situation: I've come home miserable over the last three months (literal tears on the way home, open up my laptop, work very late, pass out on the couch, repeat) and have lost the will to go to the gym/ hold a conversation during the week. My boyfriend of 2 years says there's been a change in my personality in the last few months and says I seem burnt out, both personally and professionally. He's worried that my apathy towards work is creeping into other aspects of my life.
Startup offer details: Cool Series B healthcare startup with a solid mission. No move required as I live in SF. 40% cash base increase, flexible PTO, meals, rides, equity. Role is a biz dev associate, which is a lateral move in terms of title. The team is growing and they have solid backing.
Would you turn over a new leaf at a startup and risk your b-school letters of rec or would you stay at your current firm for 4 more months to check off the"two year" box before making a leap?
There is no hard rule that you must stay 2 years. I left a Tier 2 consulting firm after 1.5 years for a large tech company and no one has ever questioned why i didn't stay an extra 6 months (in subsequent job interviews). If you feel unhappy (and it seems like you really are) then you should just pursue the startup.
Although if you are committed to applying to bschool this year, staying 2 months for the letters of rec might be worth.
Take the start-up. Work to build something, don't be miserable.
Good lord, make the jump.
2 years is a fairly arbitrary time period that's supposed to mean (1) you've created enough value to your employer that they're NPV+ on hiring you and training you, (2) you've reached an inflection point where you've learned enough to now be able to deploy those skills in other realms, and (3) you've mastered the basic job requirements of entry-level work and you're scaling up to higher-value skills within your company.
While there's a loose rationale for those three happening concurrently, there's no hard and fast rule that they all have to happen simultaneously, and they certainly don't all take 2 years post-hire for every person every time.
I stayed at my first consulting firm for almost three years, but I got to where you've described yourself after about 15 months. I thought I would continue to learn and grow, but it turned out the things that were frustrating weren't development issues, but systemic issues within the firm structure. Once I finally realized that, I was out.
Your new opportunity sounds like it has great personal and professional promise. Go get it.
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