Wanted to get some outside perspective on my current situation. Currently been with a Big 4 consulting firm for 2+ years. This year is my promotion year to Senior (I am 98% sure I will be promoted). I am looking to make a move soon to industry (ideally in strategic planning of corporate dev roles) and preferably in the tech space before going back to school. The issue with my industry move is that most companies haven't been given me as much as a chance as I would have liked - most of the inquiries I am getting are mor tech focused (I'm starting to really doubt the brand name Big 4 firms have). Moreover, I am in the FS industry group, so I have very limited exposure to the tech space.
As such I started branching out to a few other roles. IB was a bit of a stretch since I haven't had much financial modelling experience and did want to start as a 1 yr analyst. I did recently just got an offer to join a small FS shop in their new Valuations group. My move would be a lateral move, with the chance of a promotion next year depending on performance.
Wanted to get people's thoughts to see if this move as a Valuations Analyst would help me get into the a Cord Dev/Strategic Planning role, or if I should just tough it out at the Big 4 until I get the promotion. I haven't heard of a lot of people that have made this move (which makes me think its not a good one). The comp for the valuations role is a bit higher (~10%), but I am not a lock for promo this year as I am at my Big 4. The big plus is that there are no industry designations, so I will have a chance to gain exposure to different groups, and it will help me develop the financial modelling/technical skill-set that a lot of these Corp Dev roles are asking for.
Thoughts?
We almost have similar background and will share you my points.
Your experience is in FS industry group but you are interested in tech space. Your industry experience might not be valuable to the companies you applied for. When I moved to a particular company (strategic planning work also), I was asked about my industry experience in Big 4 that I can apply to the company. I was also asked about my contributions to the success of the project. Perhaps you can ask for a project at your current firm that is in a different industry, if possible.
I sort of question why you do not have much financial modeling experience given that you are already more than 2 years at Big 4. Even though you are in FS group, this is also one skill that you can showcase to the interviewer (including the market research and analysis, management level interaction, etc.)
The expertise that you can gain from valuation is specialized/technical and is valuable to acquisitive companies. But you can gain a lot of financial modeling experience from this. Just make sure that this company has a lot of tech company clients that you can gain exposure on.
Thanks Awesome07. to your points:
1) I haven't had as much success even getting the initial interviews to talk it through. I think I would be able to persuade them or at least connect logically how my experiences are applicable, but havent had much success even getting my foot in the door.
2) I've done some modeling, but not nearly to the depth/degree as financial modelling (e.g. I haven't had to use financial statements or anything). Most of my modeling has been in the form of revenue and cost projections/forecasts, resource modelling, cost benefit analysis, etc.
3) The position is starting to develop more tech companies as clients, especially startups. I am hoping that I will be able to hop on a few of those assignments should I decide to make the switch, but again theres no guarantee.
Anyone else have any thoughts?
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