Corp Dev to IB

I’m a current Corp Dev analyst at large wealth management firm (Hightower/Creative Planning/Mercer). The job has been amazing so far, especially as my first job out of college, and has great perks but I’ve found that the work isn’t challenging (currently work only ~30 hours/week) and my mobility upwards in the company will be slow with lower comp than I’d like.

Should I transition now to IB if my ultimate goal is PE? Am I pigeonholed to FIG groups? When does FT recruiting typically take place for bulge brackets? Will IBs look positively on my deals (typically sub $100M transactions)?

3 Comments
 

Bruh, I'm literally in the same boat...

Did LMM buy side for one year and got in corp dev for a very siloed industry. Love the work life balance but the team is just too small and the bandwidth is really not good compared to IB.

I've had interviews with PEs, but they ALWAYS picked IB / other PE folks over me who works in infra/P&U. Moving to IB would make sense if your ultimate goal is to get into PE.

To your last question, do you have some flagship deal you can talk about? Does your team deal with bankers often? Advisors would come to our office to pitch and invite us to dinner/sports games so I guess moving across would not be that hard? I also get headhunted quit often so I'm guessing if you work for a reputable company, moving across would not be an issue.

 

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