28 Comments
 

periwinkle and rosewater

"You stop being an asshole when it sucks to be you." -IlliniProgrammer "Your grammar made me wish I'd been aborted." -happypantsmcgee
 

OP, you might be thinking about finance positions at a corporation vs. investment banking positions. In this case, the difference would be the work experience.

corporate finance is profit forecasting, revenue analysis, internal auditing, treasury, budgeting, etc. for the corporation (usually a multitude of different groups to work for).

Investment banking is helping other companies raise capital and requires more valuation-type work (also much more grunt work).

MKballer
 
Best Response

Hi there,

Ok, here's my take...

corporate finance and ibanking have many similarities - job function wise. However, while the base salaries are initially the same, the bonus structures are completely different. Obviously, IB pays significantly more in bonus than corporate finance ever would. However, I think quality of life in corporate finance is significantly better. That's the tradeoff.

 

Working in the finance department of a "normal" (i.e. not financial services) company is still generally called "corporate finance" by the people who do it for a living (i.e. previously myself).

The pay isn't even in the same galaxy as I-banking, with a few exceptions. CorpFin in a "normal" company doesn't generate revenue for the company, and so you're looked at as overhead, and it's never good to be overhead. At least for me, it was a glorified accounting job.

With that said, you learn a lot of the skills I-bankers use, and so if you went to a good school and you have CorpFin experience, you might be able to make the jump.

I just defected to the world of RE.

 

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