Anyone move from IB to CorpDev as an Aso? What are some considerations to keep in mind?
I'm currently an Associate in Investment Banking. Have a fairly generalist background with experience in various sectors doing m&a at a middle market. After reflecting on my experiences and recent bonus, I'm considering a career transition. I'm intrigued by the possibilities in corporate development and am curious about how well my skills and interests in M&A processes might align with roles in that field.
From my conversations and interviews, I have noticed that corporate development roles share some similarities with IB, particularly around M&A activities, which excites me. However, I have also observed that the acquisition strategies vary between companies; some have a strong historical M&A record but have become less acquisitive, while others are more dynamic but work much more regularly.
One aspect that particularly stands out to me is the work-life balance. It appears that teams in corporate development typically value this more, which aligns with my personal goals for my next move. Yet, I have also encountered groups where people have indicated that the pace is fast and the days are long, reflecting a high level of activity and perhaps a challenging work-life balance.
Given these observations, I'm reaching out for advice. How can I identify the right role in corporate development that matches my interest in M&A, offers a positive work environment, and aligns with my desire for a better work-life balance?
For anyone that has made this move around this level, what were some considerations you had to ensure the role was a good match for you? I'm interested in learning about your approach to evaluating opportunities and how satisfied you were with the job you found. Your insights could be incredibly valuable in guiding me toward making a well-informed decision.
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Ignore title. I moved to F500 corp dev from being an Associate at a MM IB. I’d say that you should talk to people who have left the role recently to get the clearest picture of what to expect. If you join a “serial acquirer” expect WLB to be not great (not IB but certainly not 9-5), let’s say averaging ~55-60/wk with 80-100 hr spikes as has been the case for folks at my company. However, some companies that are less acquisitive are likely to give you closer to a typical 35-45/wk with less things to do and arguably skills to acquire. In your interviews I would poke around to understand how much M&A is being done as well as how the company positions WLB. If you feel like they are being cagey, that’s a bad sign. They should be upfront and say if they run hard or if they encourage WLB or something in the middle.
A few thoughts from someone in corp dev at the associate level and has worked at multiple companies in corp dev.
(1) A huge portion of what you do on the job in IB translates to corp dev. You will be building models. You will be preparing PPTs.
However, in corp dev, you will touch on a much larger portion of a deal. For example, in corp dev you will likely be involved with the pre-closing process in some meaningful capacity. As a banker you will pretty much never be. In corp dev, you will be far more involved with that initial “do we engage in this process” decision. And so on.
(2) You will often have a better quality of life in corp dev. This is for a few reasons.
First, you’re the principal, not the advisor. You don’t have to be “on” 24/7. A corollary to this is that you also can rely on advisors to do certain things for you. You can delegate more.
Second, there is a lot less busy work. You don’t need a 30 page appendix to cover every possibility just in case.
Third, and this is related to the above, you have more time outside of work. Like in the ~11 months I have been in my current role, I think I have worked roughly 5 weekends where I have done more than just send emails / make minor edits / etc. So while you will not be paid as much, because you are a cost center, you get to be able to do more.
(3) Every company is different. Corp dev roles vary significantly by size, sophistication, and strategy, of the business. There are two key indicators of what a type of work you’d be doing in a corp dev role. The two ends are basically if it is a deal related role or a strategy related role.
To tell if it is a deal related role, look for (i) the deal history of the company and (ii) if it is PE backed. Those are the two best indicators. If they did 10 deals a year for the past 10 years, they will likely be doing many deals going forward. PE backed firms tend to want to do roll ups. If neither of those are the case, then it is likely more of a strategy role.
I took a little detour between IB to Corpdev stopping at an FP&A / strategic finance role along the way, but below are some observations I had that could help.
1. Team - Corpdev teams in general are going to be pretty lean. For most companies it's usually 2-3 people - usually a Director / VP and a couple of managers / associates. At larger places that are more aquisitive corpdev teams can get a lot larger with different deal teams focusing on different verticals. That being said from my experience the team makeup is probably the most important factor in determining a good fit. For example, if your team is made up of ex-bankers and reports to other teams / leadership that are ex-consultants / ex-bankers you're probably going to have generally longer hours for a corpdev team with more scrutiny on your work. On the flip side if you have non-IB folk, product people, etc. leading corpdev teams the expectations / hours are going to probably be on the lower side. For example, my past teams consisted of transaction advisory and ex-entrepreneurs and I very rarely worked more than 50 hours a week max. Most weeks it was 20-30 hours.
None are really better or worse than the other, but just something to consider. If you want good experience, a more buttoned up team, clearer pathway up the corporate ladder (in or outside corpdev), then the ex-IB / ex-consultant team is probably going to give you what you want. If you want more of a lifestyle gig then find a team that doesn't have ex-bankers.
2. Deal flow - Another thing to consider is deal flow. Some companies are by their very existence aquisitive. I work for a portco looking to roll up a bunch of players in a fragmented market right now and we're going to do 2-3 deals this year. Interestingly enough that was more than my corpdev specific role where we did 0 aquisitions in the 10 months I was there. Once again it's not really better or worse, but more of what do you want. My last corpdev role paid well and was chill, but in the end the team was just a front to show shareholders we were "growing", but once we were set to sell to a PE group I was canned along with my team. However, now in my current "FP&A" role I'm suddenly doing way more modeling and in the weeds with these future deals we have lined up. M&A is core to our growth and the PE group's investment strategy so less likely I'll lose my job going forward. Anyway, just something to think about in terms of what do you want when applying.
3. Company stage / performance - This is pretty important too IMO. At more mature / larger companies things are once again going to be more buttoned up with streamlined processes. You'll probably have a more defined role with more resources etc. At middle market / smaller companies you'll probably wear more hats and have to fill in the gaps in a lot of places. I haven't had the opportunity to work at some fo the larger players in the tech space (e.g., Amazon, Google, etc.), but from what I gather their corpdev teams have processes down and more or less know what they're doing. Also, guys in corpdev over there really just focus on corpdev. The companies I've worked for were more in the middle market / lower middle market space and honestly things were a mess. Lot of gaps to fill and unclear roles - a lot of times I got pulled into doing stuff for FP&A and other departments. Suddenly I'm a part of the budget or I'm making some random strategy presentation about AI - corpdev can be kind of a floater group that just does random stuff. Even in M&A you fill in a lot of difference roles. For example, the comms person was out on maternity so I'm writing the first drafts of the acquisition announcements. In another instance I was drafting the first round of employment agreements. Once again not better or worse, but just depends on what you want. I like the chaos / filler role so for me it worked, but I know some people like more defined lanes.
For me personally corpdev was ok for a while, but not for a long term career. There was just not really a defined path forward at most places (i.e., beyond director) and I didn't like being confined to just M&A. For me a more strategic finance / FP&A role with some M&A where I can flex my financial modeling / analysis was more a fit. For me it was less about "let's go buy stuff" and more about "let's answer questions, but through the lens of finance".
Anyway just some things to think about - hopefully that helps.
Not to hijack the thread, but could someone on the CD side weigh in on what level you can come in at from IB? From what I've seen, IB analysts come in as associate in CD, associates potentially as manager, could a VP get director, or would they be capped at senior manager to start?
Titles are all over the place, but IMO there's a pretty big mismatch in IB VP comp and how their skillset translates to a corpdev role, so the transition is just not super common in general.
So would you say there's no real advantage to waiting until the VP promo to recruit for corpdev roles versus at the AS3 level? (from IB)
probably not.
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