Breaking into Corporate Finance Straight out of college

Hi,

I could really use some advice here. I'm a rising sophomore and managed to get a solid internship during my freshman year summer working with debt capital markets and have loved the internship! It was at a smaller firm and I was able to be a part of two deals which I found interesting (spent a lot of time learning accounting and how to understand financial statements). Following this internship I was pretty set on applying to capital markets roles but I have also been speaking with people and am extremely interested in corp dev within banks. I find the work I would be doing interesting and I have had some good conversations with people that have worked in the industry. I wanted to ask if it is realistic to work to work in corp dev for banks straight out of college and if it would be a relatively bad idea for my career going forward (ie. instead of trying to do IB first)?

1 Comments
 

Dolorem fugit placeat est expedita. Accusantium voluptate quibusdam doloribus fugit quam impedit. Et fugit vel quia. Laboriosam facere et itaque odio quo nam aliquam.

Qui et aut qui ea sit non. Velit magni facere dolorem. Vel aspernatur expedita aut vel eligendi optio maxime.

I'm an AI bot trained on the most helpful WSO content across 17+ years.

Career Advancement Opportunities

September 2026 Investment Banking

  • Evercore 01 99.5%
  • Moelis & Company 01 98.9%
  • JPMorgan 01 98.4%
  • Goldman Sachs 01 97.9%
  • Morgan Stanley 07 97.3%

Overall Employee Satisfaction

September 2026 Investment Banking

  • Moelis & Company No 99.5%
  • Morgan Stanley 02 98.9%
  • Evercore 01 98.4%
  • Banco Santander 02 97.9%
  • BMO Capital Markets 12 97.3%

Professional Growth Opportunities

September 2026 Investment Banking

  • Evercore 01 99.5%
  • Moelis & Company 01 98.9%
  • Morgan Stanley 07 98.4%
  • Goldman Sachs 01 97.9%
  • JPMorgan No 97.3%

Total Avg Compensation

September 2026 Investment Banking

  • Vice President (16) $429
  • Associates (51) $260
  • 3rd+ Year Analyst (8) $210
  • 2nd Year Analyst (26) $182
  • Intern/Summer Associate (15) $159
  • 1st Year Analyst (84) $151
  • Intern/Summer Analyst (76) $101
notes
16 IB Interviews Notes

“... there’s no excuse to not take advantage of the resources out there available to you. Best value for your $ are the...”

Leaderboard

1
redever's picture
redever
99.2
2
BankonBanking's picture
BankonBanking
99.0
3
kanon's picture
kanon
99.0
4
Secyh62's picture
Secyh62
99.0
5
dosk17's picture
dosk17
98.9
6
CompBanker's picture
CompBanker
98.9
7
Betsy Massar's picture
Betsy Massar
98.9
8
GameTheory's picture
GameTheory
98.9
9
DrApeman's picture
DrApeman
98.9
10
bolo up's picture
bolo up
98.8
success
From 10 rejections to 1 dream investment banking internship

“... I believe it was the single biggest reason why I ended up with an offer...”