Corporate Development Interview F500, any tips?

First time venturing out to the corporate world. I am interviewing with the Director of Corporate Development, wondering what kind of questions he will ask. Also, what are some good questions to ask him, Thank you guys, I'll give an update on what happens.

 
Best Response

Can't help on specific questions. But you will need to show an understanding of basic valuation techniques, the ability to effectively communicate findings to executive leadership, and project management skills (specifically the ability to keep large multi-function teams on task).

Some teams are also more concerned with personality, cultural fit, and desire to stay long term (particularly in non-tech industries with companies in smaller markets).

 

I think I've said this before but I don't believe there is any template interview questions that firms use for CD. I've had a very technical finance interview, a case study interview and just a fit interview at differing companies.

That being said I would suggest finding out more about the person interviewing you. For instance if your interviewer has a IB background, most likely you'll get an interview similar to an ib interview (same could be said if your interviewer was an ex consultant - case study interview with market sizing etc.)

But I think @qbison is basically on point.

 

I've had two Corp Dev internship interviews. One was pure behavioral, very easy, asked me why I was interested in the company and their business and what relevant experience I had. For the other one I actually had multiple interviews and one person asked me technical finance questions in addition to behavioral and someone else asked me about the company's strengths and weaknesses from their s-1 as well as what I thought they could do to improve. Not too bad though. One guy also asked me to pitch him a stock.

 
kp217:

I've had two Corp Dev internship interviews. One was pure behavioral, very easy, asked me why I was interested in the company and their business and what relevant experience I had. For the other one I actually had multiple interviews and one person asked me technical finance questions in addition to behavioral and someone else asked me about the company's strengths and weaknesses from their s-1 as well as what I thought they could do to improve. Not too bad though. One guy also asked me to pitch him a stock.

What type of technicals? Basic valuation questions? Borrowing capacity/ability questions?

 

I'd say CD interviews vary widely between CD groups and even individual interviewers.

Usually, CD groups are pretty small, so when I interviewed for my internship, I had an interview with every single person on the CD team. The same is true when we've interviewed new people. Basically, most of the work we do is very team oriented (I would say more so than banking) and therefore fit is extremely important.

Also, one thing that it's important to realize is that different CD people come from different backgrounds. On our team we have a former banker, two accountants, a biochemist (we're a pharma company, if it's with tech CD, there will likely be an engineer or something), and a former outsourcing consultant. Each of these people has different concerns and different interview experiences. From the banker, expect a banker style interview. From an accountant, expect a lot of accounting questions. From people with medical (technical) background, expect them to test you on medical (technical) knowledge.

I'd say the biggest thing we used to look for when finding intern candidates (or any kind of employee really) was a background in the industry. Pharma and tech (the main users of CD), are extremely complicated industries that require a very detailed knowledge of the products themselves. Though not required for an intern at your friend's level, knowing things about (obviously this is for pharma) IP, the drug lifecycle, the fda approval process, clinical trials, generics v. branded, and mechanism of action are all extremely huge bonuses. If we had found an intern with that level of knowledge, we would have hired them on the spot.

One other note is that since many CD teams are so small (less than 10 people for a fortune 500 company in my case), many don't use any sort of formal recruiting process. I know when we got free time, we'd register with school career centers at a variety of schools (target and non-target) and read resumes posted there. We would contact people who looked interesting (sometimes we'd also solicit resumes). Therefore, there wasn't necessarily a structure like you might find at bigger firms (or even applying to bigger groups within the same firm). Unfortunately, this also led us to leave a candidate hanging for two monhs since we got too busy to hire him. Again, depending on the job your friend is applying for, this may not apply.

 

Absolutely. You'll probably need to work on modelling/valuation skills. But if you notice some of the CorpDev guys' posts on here, a good part of CD work is post-M&A integration. Of course that also depends on the company, but it could be the reason you have the interview.

"You stop being an asshole when it sucks to be you." -IlliniProgrammer "Your grammar made me wish I'd been aborted." -happypantsmcgee
 

Depending on the nature of corpdev at this firm, there might be a need for talent outside of the core deal modeling, which frankly is not where a majority of the time is spent for most deals/teams. You certainly need adequate proficiency with modeling, valuation, deal terms, etc., but don't sell yourself as having mad banker skills-- instead highlight the strengths you can bring to the table.

Due diligence and collaboration with venture integration teams are two areas that come to mind for an Operations consulting background.

 

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