News Corp M & A and Disney Strategic Group

I have searched the forum for this particular topic but could not find much info. I wanted to get everyones thoughts and answers to the below questions.

A) What is the typical route into these positions? Can you enter straight from undergrad or do you have to go through 2 years of banking/consulting?

B)What is the salary, perks, and bonuses(if there is)? Would these positions give you comparable salaries to banking/consulting or would it be a significant step down in pay?

C)How difficult is it to land a position?

D)As well, what sort of exit ops will a position in one of these groups give you?

E)Just based on reading some posts on these groups, their is much prestige associated with them. Why is this, and would working in one of these groups be looked on more favorably than banking/consulting?

Thanks!

8 Comments
 

I am no expert, but from my understanding corporate M&A groups take people with experience, the groups are rather small and I guess they can't afford training like the big banks.

All guesses:

A) ibanking --> M&A group at a corporation b) lower salaries than banking, but better hours/benefits, more laid back, prolly more prestige within the Company c) with ibanking experience, probably equal to finding another job at another bank d) probably open you up to more corporate jobs, but only slightly.... give you more corporate experience and sector experience. Exit op could be moving up to general director roles/management in a company within the same industry/sector e) More favourably than ibanking, probably equal or slightly less.

 

naturally every corp dev office is different, but generally speaking they will recruit from within the company or will hire an experienced i-banking professional.

salaries are nowhere near bulge-bracket i-banking levels, but lifestyle and prestige within the company are major perqs - not to mention frequent use of the company G-5 and more job security.

as a recent xfer from an i-bank to corporate development role, I've never been happier. Exit opps in my view are going to the higher levels within the company (business unit president, CFO, etc - where money can equal the i-banking levels).

 

I wouldn't say it's easy. It's mostly a matter of finding the place that is hiring. Lots of looking through job websites and connecting to lots of recruiters. You'd be better off first working as an i-bank analyst for a few years and then looking to xfer to corp dev.

 

thanks - i know with the market right now, there is a ton of talent out there, but i would much prefer to do corp dev rather than banking for two years, given the option that is (which is rare i know)

 

When we say better lifestyle than banking, how much better are we talking? Is it pretty much 55-65 hour weeks? And how bad is the salary? I would guess salary for an ex two year banker would be around $85-$95K all in? If the above assumptions are correct, what would be the benefit to Corp Dev over MM Private Equity where the hours are similar or slightly worse and the salary is significantly higher?

 
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