Hi all, I am a 3rd-year Investment Banking Analyst in M&A (generalist) at a breakaway boutique. I started recruiting for PE January of this year, but obviously COVID delayed everything until around now.
As you can imagine, I'm stressing a lot now given I have ~6 months until my banking stint ends. Our CEO generally asks us about our interest in the associate position a year ahead of time, and given I was recruiting already, I had already declined (nor do I really desire to stay on.)
While I make do day by day, my mental health is in a pretty bad state right now. I won't go into details, but I've struggled mentally for many years. I'm beginning to consider CD a lot more to get the lifestyle change and give my body / mind a chance to recover.
My question is how does the timeline look? If say I leave my current position in June before finding a next role, does that hurt my chances as much as in traditional PE / HF roles?
Aside from that, any advice would be greatly, greatly appreciated as I know very little about corp dev processes.
Thank you and Happy Holidays.
Bump, sorry
Corp Dev recruiting doesn't really have a "timeline" I would say.
All the teams are incredibly lean and they basically hire whenever needed really.
Thanks - that's what I assumed also. I guess my question is moreso if I finish up my stint in banking before getting a CD role, is that seen in a negative light? Or can I frame it as, I knew banking wasn't for me, but needed some time to think through next career steps (given leaving a Wall St. job is a big change)?
Corp Dev is sporadic from a recruiting timeline perspective.
You will have to search for roles in everyday since more companies are positing directly to Job Posting Sites (primarily LinkedIn and Indeed.com).
As a note, I was in your shoes as I was wrapping up my IB program without another role initially lined up. I was fortunate to land something a few months before my IB role concluded but I search each day and keep tabs on different roles I was interviewing for.
Thanks! SB'd and PM'd :)
If you were given the chance to get to Associate position, why wouldn't you do it?
We have these talks > a year in advance, and I didn't want to make a commitment I wouldn't end up keeping. I realize there's really no harm in reneging after accepting the position, but it's more of a personal value to not do something like that. Not even a moral high ground thing, but I just don't like to make promises like that, especially with the size of my firm - previous analysts have done so, and it's disruptive for sure.
Just landed a CD role. I'd say it is definitely more sporadic. Advice I would give would be if you have a contact (analyst/associate) at a company you're interested in, try to keep periodic contact with them - if you have a decent relationship with them they'll likely give you a heads up when openings come. I know a number of people that ended up landing roles after getting heads up from people they networked with.
Thanks - Can I inquire what the interviews were like? At a bit of a loss on how to prepare vs. PE where everything seemed much more structured.
I have had 5+ interviews for Corp Dev in the last couple months and they are all different. Some will give you short modeling case studies, some will give you really long ones that include presentations, others will just ask technical questions in the beginning to make sure you're proficient in accounting and then put you through to a final round. It really is ALL over.
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