Corp. Dev. to PE

For anyone who has gone down this path, I would love to hear your thoughts and experiences transitioning from Corp. Dev. to PE.

A little more detail to sentence above:

While being in the Corp. Dev. role (Less than year) has been intriguing from the standpoint of getting familiar with a new industry and buyside for a corporation, I have been lately thinking about making the move to PE. My hesitation is that while I may find the work more interesting "per se" (at least depending on fund), I worry that I may also being going through a "grass is greener" mentality. I been considering lately but have a slight hesitation that I may have a case of the "grass being greener"

Thanks for any and all comments.

 

Yeah, similar interview process. And you would likely take a step back (not sure necessarily start from the bottom). For example, I know a guy that did 2 years of corp dev after 2 years of IB. He started at his PE firm as a year 1 associate. If you did maybe 4 or 5 years and closed a lot of deals, I doubt you'd start as a 1st year associate.

 
Best Response

@Bullet-Tooth Tony Recently received a Project Dev/Corp Dev offer for a renewable energy infrastructure startup and am highly considering making the jump. Amazing culture/mission, extremely talented management team but below-average pay cut from IBD. My main concern is that I would be turning my back on PE/infrastructure fund opportunities down the road...I know that the renewable space is where I want to be long-term, whether or not that's in Corp Dev type role or on the buy side.

PE/Infrastructure funds aren't necessarily my end goal, I'm just worried about shutting too many doors this early in my career. I'm just finishing my first year at MM Energy IBD and am worried about jumping too early.

 

At places like GE, if you have exposure to GE capital, the opportunity for transition is definitely there.

For IBM/Google/Intel, you can play up tech industry experience in lateraling to a tech PE firm.

A top corp dev job at a well known firm is just a cut below McK, Bain, BCG and the top Bulge Brackets, as the networks from ex-banker sand ex-consultants tend to be more developed at PE firms that the path from corp dev to PE.

That said, it's definitely possible - network network network!

 

I have often asked myself if the transition from CD to PE is possible. For megafunds I think this would be pretty rare but I'm sure it happens in the middle market. If you take the time to read the bio's of private equity people on their websites you will see that many come from backrounds outside of banking. The question of whether X Job can possibly lead to PE is constantly asked on this board and the response is usually no. However, I think people don't recognize the fact that for the middle market, entry is possible from other career fields.

 

"If you take the time to read the bio's of private equity people on their websites you will see that many come from backrounds outside of banking."

Yeah, like former prime minister? Seriously, the backgrounds of people who come in at the partner level are all over the place, but we're not talking about a candidate with years and years of impressive experience here.


http://www.drmarkklein.blogspot.com/

_______________________________________ http://www.drmarkklein.blogspot.com/
 

"Seriously, the backgrounds of people who come in at the partner level are all over the place, but we're not talking about a candidate with years and years of impressive experience here."

Your exactly right. We are talking about pre-mba and post-mba associates. They have bios on many PE Fund websites and yes some do come from backrounds other than Banking and Management Consulting. I am referring to middle market funds. I spoke to an MBA student at Wharton a few weeks ago who worked in Transaction Services and he said that 3 out of 6 members of his transaction team left the firm for private equity, and not some bullshit controller or accounting job.

 

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