Hey all, long time reader and first time poster. Just wanted to get some insight and hear people's experience about jumping from a Big 4 valuations group into a role in corporate dev. or corp. finance (FP&A). I understand those are different groups that perform very different work at most companies. I found both interesting and just trying to get a better feel for them. Looking to know why people made the jump and when they made the jump? Skills that they found were most sought after when applying and interviewing, etc. Thanks!
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I know friends who have gone to corporate development, although one guy is in a hybrid corp dev and fp&a role. Both left around 1-2 years in. I think valuations sets you up quite well for these type of positions as you will acquire extensive modeling and analytical skills as well as business acumen, which are all desirable in corporate dev and/or corp. finance.
Thanks, Whitebeard. Appreciate the insight
Thanks (Whitebeard) for the information
I have a colleague in corp dev who came from valuations - although he started at current company in more of an FP&A role I think the valuations experience gave him the ability to jump to corp dev.
Definitely possible, as I pretty much did the same thing (coming from a MM accounting firm).
I actually found it easier to get into CD than IB, I figured it would be the opposite since there are much less CD roles than analyst/associate roles at banks.
Thanks @BankerC159! Do you mind telling about how you made the jump. Some details into how you approached networking, how you sold your story and career path in interviews, etc. Any details would be great!
Sure, no worries. I'm not sure if I have very much insight mainly because I didn't really network too hard for the CD roles I've taken (I just applied online and interviewed). I did an AMA a while back so maybe some useful information for you in there.
But for CD roles I've interviewed and accepted, they all had a pretty big bias towards wanting someone who can model really well - especially at the lower levels. I think working is B-Val can definitely set you up for that. The other main hurdle is deal experience, I would say the thing that helped me the most is formatting my resume in a deal based fashion.
So for instance, you can say "Valued intangible assets for a technology company with $80.0m in value using DCF, Precedent Transaction, Guideline company analysis" - just have to get a bit creative sometimes.
For a story, I just really mentioned that all my current work in B-Val is really post deal related and am much more interested in the pre-deal (having true impact on acquisition decisions). I think they'll get it.
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