Corporate development to investment banking
Hi,
I'm a summer analyst in corporate development at CIBC World Markets. I'm going into my last year of university, and I'm looking into investment banking for full time recruitment. What are your thoughts on switching from corp development into ibd in terms of its difficulty, whether employers value corporate development as valuable work experience... any insight would be helpful !
PS. In case some people don't know what corp dev is since it is not widely discussed. I'm essentially doing M&A but on behalf of CIBC rather than doing it for clients. It is a lot more strategy focused rather than pitching to clients.
Thanks in advance
JD
Haha, everyone here knows what corp dev is.
True, but OP is new to WSO.
I'm kind of interested myself. Very common to go from ibank to corp dev, but I haven't heard much the other way...
Interested to hear as well.. anyone go from corp/biz dev to IB?
bump
Most people interested in CorpDev are trying to get there from IBD, so no I would not imagine it'd be difficult at all. As you said, it's essentially M&A for one company so it'd be very easy to spin your experience in a banker-esque way on your resume.
Insurance Corp Dev Internship ----> IB FIG FT (Originally Posted: 03/03/2016)
delete
I know when I was recruiting for an IS associate role at a BB FiG group, they took a guy with 6 years insurance experience over me. So it can be done, although it may not be the easiest path.
IS role?
SIDE NOTE would a financial analyst role at Wells Fargo be more helpful to my ultimate goal of FT IB?
Backing up a step: What went wrong for you that you couldnt get an IBD internship with a "well known" MM PE firm internship experience?
Good question, but bottom line is that the work you do in Corporate Development is buy side investment banking. You'll be gaining the same skills and similar experience.
Also keep in mind that Corporate Development is typically an exit opportunity from banking and not the other way round.
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Corp Dev Summer role to IB? (Originally Posted: 12/01/2015)
Hi All,
Currently a first year MBA candidate at a program ranking in the 30-50 range. I have been striking out on BB and top MM IB opportunities which was my initial goal. There are several F500 corp dev programs that I plan on pursuing. I was hoping some of you could provide some guidance on exit ops for corp dev programs. I am still pursuing IB at regional boutiques and a few MM shops but I want to keep my options open.
Couple questions:
If all I get is corp dev summer role, will this have any weight in FT IB recruiting?
Where do corp dev guys go after 3-8 years in that role? Do most people stay?
Appreciate the help
bump
.
If you climb the corp dev ladder you can make as much as bankers and its a better lifestyle gig. Corp Dev can be an end game in itself.
Corp. Dev./Strategy to I-banking (Originally Posted: 11/05/2009)
I currently work in a corporate strategy/business development team for a division of a very large diversified industrial (think GE-ish). Applying to top 10 b-schools, but so far in round 1 I've had shitty luck - no interviews as of yet. So I'm trying to think of contingency plans - I figured I'd be wasting my time in b-school unless I made it into a top 10 as my ultimate goal is PE (namely growth equity). This year sucked - zero deals executed (one big one we walked away from and some bullshit divestitures that we "examined"). So I really need some deal experience to do PE. If I don't get into b-school, I'm think of trying to transition into a MM banking shop. But has anyone ever made or heard of the transition of going from corp. dev/strategy to i-banking (I don't want to be an analyst - I know how to model - seems like my life is composed of Excel functions and ppt "decks"). Also, I've never worked in banking prior to this.
Thanks in advance for your input...
I don't know about your chances but you can guarantee that you're starting as an analyst. Hard to be an associate unless you have a MBA.
while i was a summer at a BB, i know of a guy who came in as a 3rd year associate, with no previous experience other than corp-development. It just depends on the market and who you know. as you get into more senior positions it also has do with what kinds of relationships you have which may help that particular bank grow their franchise in a particular market area. bottom line, it can be done, its about networking and being in the right place right time.
How many years of work experience do you have outside of undergrad?
Top-10 MBA will need a minimum of 3 years from Industry with a median of 5.
Thanks folks for the replies - I have four years of experience - one as an engineer, transitioned into technical marketing for two years and now have over a year in corporate strategy. I'm pretty ripe for an MBA...I'm probably the same age as most incoming associates, and definitely a bit old/experienced in finance to be a first year analyst. I have a MS Finance from a non-target but pretty sure that won't get me into banking by itself. Oh well..thanks for the help.
Your resume is all over the palce. You need to try and stay in one area for a bit of time so you have a bit of in depth knowledge about something rather than knowing a little about a lot
did you have any luck with the bschool apps?
Corp Dev to IB? (Originally Posted: 12/23/2013)
I know the typical career progression is to go from banking into corporate development but i'm wondering if it is possible to do the opposite? assuming the group is heavily involved in m&a and you get heavily exposed to valuation / irr / npv how likely is it to get into IB as like a 2nd year?
Why would you want to?
the corp dev role would be in an industry i'm not too interested in....but they're m&a heavy, so i thought it might be interesting for a year or so
Depends on the kind of work you're doing in the group. Know someone who went from Corp M&A to an BB analyst role. So def possible, more so if you are doing acquisition/divestiture type work in the corp dev role.
Not very common but it is possible and I've seen it done a few times.
Corp. Development Internship ---> IB FT? (Originally Posted: 04/13/2007)
I have an internship this summer in the corporate development office of a subsidiary of a fortune 100 company. This subsidiary makes about $600 mm in revenue a year. I will be doing M&A work and future strategy for the company. Do you think this experience will set me up nicely for FT IB recruiting or consulting? Or will I have a hard time come this fall due to the fact that I don’t have an internship at a bank? As a side note, the Fortune 100 companies name isn’t all that popular and doesn’t pop out on paper.
Will a negative answer make you not do ft ib recruiting? Or are you just looking for a positive?
Why dont you just tell us the name of the company first of all, there is no way we can use the name of the fortune 100 company to determine what subsidiary you work at. Secondly I think this is a good internship for you. What year are you?
This is definitely a good start, especially if you are at a nontarget. You will develop good industry experience.
I had corporate development experience before I went back to B-School, where I landed a summer internship a a BB bank in NY. The banks loved the experience. It is only beat out by actual banking or (big name) consulting experience.
However, be prepared to talk about the transactions in great detail during interviews.
I’m a junior so FT recruiting would be in the fall. My main concern with the job is that since the company isn’t Google or Microsoft or something, the name wont come through on a resume. My other option for the summer is some kind of back office thing at JP Morgan. So would my best bet for FT IB recruiting be to go for the relevant experience in Corp Dev. or the better name at JP Morgan?
Corp Dev. ---> IBD (Originally Posted: 02/28/2013)
How possible is this, going from corp dev to IBD, having only 6 month of IBD exp. before joining the corp dev group? I'm talking about after having a couple years of exp. of corp dev., if you wanted to go back to IBD (MM or BB or Bot.), how possible is this? Thanks.
Funny.. i'm trying to go into IB from corp dev. lol
This is pretty much my boat as well. I would say it's definitely possible, and if you wanted to really increase your odds and MBA may be a good transition if you're into that sort of thing.
i dont understand y u wud want to do such a thing.
Has anyone seen a BB or MM hire directly from corp dev? I previously worked at a no name boutique for a year, then was able to join a corp dev/strat team. I may stay long term, but if I want to go back to IB, do you think I could enter as an associate after 2-3 years? In my mind, a lot of the strategic thinking and management skills are developed in the corp dev/strat role (just like an MBA) because I am constantly managing projects, coordinating amongst departments, digging into the models, and preparing decks.
Yes, I know IB is not all about the things I mentioned above, but it seems like it would be a decent transition, especially if I can network into the industry group my current company is in.
Corporate Development to IB (Originally Posted: 07/11/2015)
IB to Corp Dev is a fairly common path.
If you start out in Corp Dev without having any IB experience, how likely are you to make the transition to IB after a few years? Assuming the group does on average 1 transaction a quarter.
Also do you think after a couple years in cd, you could come in as an associate? I suppose that being on buyside and moving to sell side might be a hurdle
If you are working in CD for a few years, you will have some exposure to IB, so you can definitely make the transition.
Bump
Depends on your corp dev group IMO. Some enjoy the corporate lifestyle while others are quite intense. If you work a fair amount of hours per week and develop an expertise in an industry vertical, I think it would be possible. The CD guys that our group has passed on were those that were trying to lateral from 40-50 hour/wk jobs where they were just running DCFs and accretion/dilution and lacked elite communication skills.
You make a good point. I always thought that IB was a check mark you had to check if you wanted to transition to PE (in my case from CD). But I think my skill set from CD is much more transferable directly to PE.
Moving in reverse: Corporate Development into IB? (Originally Posted: 02/11/2015)
Just curious, are you unsatisfied in your current role? Corporate development is a desirable gig. Lots of potential career opportunity. I've known several non-target, ok GPA guys take the CFA and make a badass career out of corp dev. I guess you could always go back to that after an IB gig.
It has been done. You are undervaluing your industry experience and expertise. You should not need grad school to talk about your deals and the fact that you participated on the buy side is an invaluable resource when pitching or prepping a company to get ready to sell.
Your perspective will be different than the rest of the typical junior staff and your industry knowledge is certainly a big selling point that I would push.
I know someone that moved from F100 to strong MM IB back to F100 and another that moved from F100 to MM IB.
pm sent
Thanks for your thoughts guys.
@"wareagle4230": I wouldn't say unsatisfied but I want experience on the sell-side as well and especially when looking at corp dev positions at larger F500 companies (current company is small cap) they're looking for people/I'm competing against those who have gone through an IB program. Also feel IB experience would hone my analysis skills so in terms of professional development I'm interested too.
@"Bullet-Tooth Tony": Thanks for the input, do you think going for an Analyst role sounds about right then?
Definitely not analyst role. If you have at least two years under your belt, you should be shooting for associate positions.
whoops double posted
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