Comments on: String learning curves together; quit your job every 6-12 months

By: The recipe for success for mid-market private equiteers | A Private Equity Blog

Mon, 18 Jan 2010 07:57:01 +0000

[...] haven’t posted anything opinionated for a while (except suggesting you should quit your job every 6 months), so what better way than suggest I have the mid-market private equity ’recipe for [...]

By: Middle East Jobs

Middle East Jobs — Sat, 16 Jan 2010 14:13:51 +0000

heres an article about how to quit your job for much better opportunities or offers https://www.jobsindubai.com/career.asp?qArticle... just want to share it with your readers

By: The Private Equiteer

The Private Equiteer — Thu, 14 Jan 2010 17:46:51 +0000

vlade: either you're very perceptive, or I'm very transparent, or both, or none

By: The Private Equiteer

The Private Equiteer — Thu, 14 Jan 2010 17:42:09 +0000

Interesting point re process vs relationships. Though arguably, working with the same tight-knit team for 10 years isn't very reflective of life as an entrepreneur.

However, I see your point. It is a challenge in itself to grow with the same group and represent yourself with more and more authority as time passes. I think that's quite a skill; to maintain respect all the way from a fledgling to a CEO.

Not sure if it outweighs the benefits of learning to build and nurture relationships with different groups in relatively quick succession. Case by case I'd say.

By: vlade

vlade — Thu, 14 Jan 2010 14:46:37 +0000

@Alex – the difference is that if I spend 10k hours learning to play piano, there's not a huge effort (comparatively speaking to learning it) involved in keeping at the best. If I set out to be technology expert in a narrow domain, the pace of changes can be so quick that I just can't keep up unless I specialise even more and more narrowly. Indeed, my specialisation can disappear altogether, and sometimes even the basics of my specialisation lose purpose. This, BTW, is for me the main argument on why our current economic theory of unemployment is wrong – it assumes that switching jobs is frictionless with low barriers of entry and that (say) to retrain laid off car assembly worker to an IT specialist with the same productivity is trivial – or even achievable for the significant majority.

@PE – your last few post feel like you're considering some change, so all the best if you do

By: peanalyst

peanalyst — Thu, 14 Jan 2010 14:37:28 +0000

Ironically, I had exactly this conversation with a PE partner yesterday. We were discussing my career (I had reached the six month point in the firm), and I told him that if it were up to me, I'd keep switching jobs every 6-12 months as per my historical CV in order to 'get 60-70% of the learning curve and move on'.

His feedback on that viewpoint was quite insightful: much of the growth as an individual – in entrepreneurship, banking or PE – comes as a result of growing alongside a team, and being able to prove your ability to work with others. Consultants (my background) have a tendency to forget this, privileging 'process learning' over 'relationship learning' – and whilst this has little impact in the early career, it can prove a substantial drag once you reach a stage where managing people/relationships matter more than process.

Food for thought?

By: The Private Equiteer

The Private Equiteer — Thu, 14 Jan 2010 13:48:25 +0000

Outliers is sitting on the bookshelf (xmas present)… sounds like I should skim through it tonight.

By: Alex

Alex — Thu, 14 Jan 2010 13:25:42 +0000

an amusing counter-argument to the Malcolm Gladwell 10,000 hours argument in 'Outliers'…