Big 4 Risk Consulting to Corp Dev (M&A) - Will you take a lateral move?
My background, Actuary, 8 years experience. Always wanted to go investment banking or Finance type of work but obviously fail. Non-Target mid-west school.
Now since I worked on a couple Due Diligence work in Big 4 in the last 12 months, I am offered a corp in-house M&A role at a Top 1. But the move is purely lateral in terms of Money and Title (manager).
Pro:
Probably my last chance to ever set foot closer to the Finance world. Actuary is a pigeonhole field and I sort of reached a bottleneck for the next 3 years.
Large deal volume (number and $), across all FIG (Insurance, Bank, Asset Management).
Cons:
No real salary increment or title promotion. Bonus may be addition 15%.
Industry in-house is not as dynamic as consulting
Hours wise, BIg4 is busy like hell for 4 months but relaxing the rest of year. No one cares when you show up for work. For the industry role I need to clock 9-6 everyday.
Lock myself up for another 2-3 years. Though staying in Big4 for another 2 years is probably not much progressing anyway.
What do you think of a lateral move to get into corporate dev role?
Do I have a chance getting into IB - FIG or PE 2, 3 years later? At 10 years experience of which only 2-3 years are M&A.
I think you have an opportunity here to get what you're looking for albeit a little down the line. I think you should take the lateral move. You want the opportunity that comes with being in M&A. Spend a couple years as a manager and then try to make another shift after you become a senior manager (or after a few years as manager). I don't think staying in risk consulting is the right move if you want to shift into a purely finance role.
I wholeheartedly agree with this. As the OP mentioned, risk consulting is a bit of a pigeonhole industry.
I'd jump out even if its a lateral move
Go for the Corp Dev role. It's your chance to try out something new, diversify your experience, and get into Finance. Corp Dev may not be a lifelong move either, you may be asked to move within the Finance org which could lead to a management role of some type. Who knows.
In terms of IB / PE, I hate to say but don't think there's a clear path from here. They're extremely competitive and risk adverse. IB will want someone who is ready to commit ungodly hours and no flexibility which isn't typically what more experienced professionals are willing to offer. PE is more likely to take a young banker since they know exactly what type of skills / perspective the kid will have and that reduces any time / investment on their end to ramp the new hire up. I used to think that PE would love to have a Corp Dev professional since Corp Dev is the buy-side but discussions with peers and senior leaders reinforce my statement. It sucks but that's the reality for 95% of the situations. Of course there's exceptions but you shouldn't base your decision on exceptions.
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