Making the transition from Investment Banking to Corporate Development/Strategy
So moving from banking to PE/HF has been well documented. I know the PE networking process, while tough, is made easier for bankers due to the presence of headhunters, and many consulting firms have internal job boards for corporate development positions....
Can anyone talk a little about moving into a development/strategy role for a corporation after the 2 year analyst program?
- Specifically how to land interviews and network for these jobs despite working 100hr weeks?
- Are you pretty much stuck to trying to get in with clients that you covered in your industry group or are there smart ways to approach companies outside of that bubble?
Any advice or stories touching on this would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.





great question
i would love to hear more about this.
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Freeze those knees, my chickadees!
http://corporate.disney.go.co
http://corporate.disney.go.com/corporate/bios/thom...
Somewhat related - CFO of Disney used to do IB at Morgan Stanley, looks like he had an MBA though.
Are you set on not getting a
Are you set on not getting a MBA? It seems that would be the easiest way.
disney
I'd really rather not get an MBA and have my reasons.
But regardless, when I was an SA this summer, It seemed like 10-15% of 2nd year analysts left for these type of positions so I know it is very possible to do without getting an MBA.
Sidenote, I feel like Disney has a pretty legit/structured corp. development program. I've seen quite a few associate profiles on PE firm websites of people who came straight from Disney's Corp Dev program with no previous finance experience.
company websites and headhunters
Most Fortune 500 companies have corporate strategy & development groups that exclusively hire former i-bankers and consultants at the pre and post-MBA levels. Hiring happens through company websites and/or headhunters.
I did 2 years of M/B/B then joined a group at Fortune 50.
feel free to pm your industry and any other questions you may have
raider4ever, how do you like
raider4ever,
how do you like your new job? regards to pay/hours/life style/ culture/ potential to move up
quick response
Perspective based on being in the role for ~1 year.
Pay is better than consulting, but with a much lower trajectory over time.
Lifestyle is feast or famine: seems like we're either working 80 hour weeks or 40, with little insight into what any particular day/week/month will be like depending on project pipeline.
Culture is dependent on the composition of the particular group and management to which you report. Mine is all former M/B/B and BB i-bankers and we report to a demanding CFO. Folks want to have a life outside of work and strive to honor that, particularly those with kids. Working style is consulting-like, but without a lot of the extracurricular stuff (dinners, team events, etc).
Group is designed as a way to attract and incubate talent into the company. After ~1.5-3 years it's expected you either roll out into more of a "line" role (marketing, finance, etc) which will be essentially at the post-MBA level or move on to b-school.
raider4ever, I can understand
raider4ever,
I can understand why they want ex consultants, but why bankers?
Do they make ex-bankers do modeling work or do you all do the same work?
Maybe they want ex bankers so they can be future finance managers.
BTW, thank you for your feedback -- this is one area that I know very little about
They want ex-bankers because
They want ex-bankers because corp dev is in-house M&A, so people with M&A experience (i.e. bankers) will bring a lot of useful skills and knowledge to the table.