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I was in the same boat at you in my first Corp Dev. Role. The lifestyle was better but I had regrets about the move I made from IB given the comp was not market, obscure progression among other issues I had with the role (to be fair, some of the issues fell at my feet as well). I did a fair amount of PE recruiting.
Fortunately, I was able to move another Corp Dev role as bump in title and compensation where I enjoy the role a lot more. I would say take some time for introspection and see if it is Corp Dev itself or the role with the Company that is causing this sense of regret.
Totally relate. I transitioned to Corp Dev recently and as an introvert it's making me question whether the field of business/finance is for me altogether. Like maybe I should be a software engineer.
Corp Dev has given me some pretty good C-suite exposure, work experience that college-aged me would consider "sexy" (though slow now with COVID), but for some reason, I'm just not feeling it. The work and exposure is cool and all but so what...so what... it's a lot of BS at the end of the day and I feel like the only ones who make it to the top are those who know how to sell. At the end of the day I'm just a slide/excel monkey filtering info for some overpaid moron execs. BD/Sales are far more important than Corp Dev (at least in my industry).
Absolutely not feeling progression right now. There'll be none. Wondering if I should go back to old job or acquire MBA but MBA would negatively affect my personal life.
I'd say after doing two separate stints in Corporate Development, I will say the following....the work is interesting most of the time and you get to be "in the know" with the execs but from a career trajectory perspective it isn't that much different than a finance person within the organization (neither is the pay).
With that said, corporate development is a mixed bag so there could be some companies that offer the perfect combo of comp, work experience and hours (most likely tech) and some that are absolutely awful to work for.
I would entertain the idea of going back into Corporate Development but I think I would be much more picky about the company itself vs. just trying to get a corp dev job. I think I'd lean towards trying to find a start-up and trying to have some sort of equity / skin in the game (which I think might be sort of rare).
Hi BankerC159, I'm definitely not seeing a long term future at my Corp Dev role, though I have learned ALOT and gained a lot of great M&A experience due to the responsibility I've got. Just not seeing the progression. Wondering how and what did you exit to after your Corp Dev role? Did you try IB/PE/VC or consulting or something else? I'm still pretty young so trying to figure out if I should try to land another Corp Dev role with more progression (at a startup as you say), try for an Associate role at IB to get that branding (though IB work seems terrible and a lot worse than what I do in Corp Dev), or get an MBA?
Depends on what you want to do long term....
I left Corporate Dev (at a Director level) to go work for a MM bank because even if I wanted to get the more "high profile" Corporate Development jobs, I think I needed to have some banking experience. I spent the majority of my time looking into IB and PE with a decent amount of bites but none of the elite/BB or top banks even looked in my direction. It's tough to exit to IB/PE from CD without previous IB experience.
I think you have to try to figure out what you want to do long-term, which I know is an unfair question to ask someone so early in their career but the paths are different, IMO. Although probably the traditional route / general answer is to just lateral to a reputable bank as an analyst / associate, then re-assess (could go MBA/PE/VC afterwards).
Well I kind of lucked out (right place right time), I had a contact at the firm and he put me in touch with the IB lead in my industry group. The conversations started probably 7-8 months before I actually started my role but we kept in touch throughout and when an opening came up I came into interview. It was actually a very informal process (no technicals, just general questions and conversing on industry trends etc.)
I will say I think there were two factors that helped me through the process: 1.) Doing corporate development in the same industry 2.) Leading corporate development deals by myself (I was the only person in a publicly traded company leading M&A processes)
I think if you're still an analyst and have good relevant experience, it should be relatively easy for you to transition (the earlier in your career the easier IMO). I think you should make your resume as investment banking-centric as possible, listing all the notable deals you've been on (I think its ok to put deals you've been on and your role - even if they didn't close). If you've done a lot of divestitures, that's a plus since you'll have exposure to the sell-side process. Lastly, I think I would bring up how you have a buyer's perspective, which could translate well to the investment banking side by offering perspective on how to market companies to strategics.
Also NETWORK!
Good luck!
As others have pointed out, corp dev is a mixed bag, and your experience is highly dependent on the company you work for and the team you work with. Corp dev is not like IB where even if you're at a "no-name" boutique, you still get similar experience to those at GS/MS (obviously on a smaller scale and sometimes with less complexity). In corp dev, you could be at a company that talks about M&A, but never engages in it, and unlike in IB, you can't just "switch teams".
I empathize with the comp "issue". I took a ~50% pay cut after I left IB for corp dev, and while it was frustrating seeing my friends who stayed in IB make twice as much or sometimes more than I did, I always reminded myself that I took that pay cut for better hours. It's a trade off.
I spent ~8 years in Corporate Development at a Fortune 500. I was fortunate in the fact that M&A was a core focus at the company and I was exposed to a lot of deal activity over the years (14+ deals). I personally was not interested in a Corp Dev / FP&A role that is commonly found at less acquisitive companies. Due to some luck through attrition and capitalizing on the opportunity, I was able to get a lot of great deal exposure early on in my career.
With that all said there were definitely some positives and negatives to the experience.
**Pros: ** * The deal experience was great. I was able to take on roles well beyond helping with the internal processes early on in my career (source, manage/lead and negotiate deals after my 3rd year at the company). Again some of this was due to attrition and being at the right place at the right time. I left feeling very confident I can take a deal from sourcing to closure on my own if I ever wanted to move back into M&A (Corp Dev, PE, Family Office, Search Fund, etc,)
The C-Suite exposure was great. I was regularly in meetings with the C-Suite and other execs at the company. It did take a few years to grow beyond the Excel / PPT jockey in the corner who was there to provide quick answers to nuanced / detailed questions. The exposure to how the C-Suite operated was valuable. It was very interesting to see how are made (more on this in the cons).
Great Network: Many of the senior leaders have move on to take C-Suite roles at other companies. If I ever want to move back into corporate, there are a number of CEOs and CFOs I would feel very comfortable calling for advice/referrals/opportunities .
Cons:
The pay relative to PE is lower and there is no upside opportunity outside of an annual bonus. No matter how the acquisition performed, pay did not change.
I often felt that my opinions on deals were completely irrelevant. At the end of the day, you are not the decision maker, even if you become a subject matter expert in an industry or niche. I would never expect to have my opinion matter much as an analyst/manager, but by the time I made Director I felt as though I was able to contribute a lot of very specific industry experience on acquisitions. I cannot count the number of times I disagreed with the decision to move forward or pass on a deal. Executing a transaction that you do not believe in can be frustrating. This may not be unique, but it was a major frustration for me personally.
Often times strategic decisions would be made well before any work on a project was completed. We'd conduct analysis and research to support a decision vs. use analysis and research to help reach conclusions. I definitely got sick of doing work to go through the motions and facilitate internal procedures and processes. Work simply felt like busy work at times.
Corporate politics. The company valued individuals who "played the game" vs, actually did the bulk of M&A execution.
Diligence team members came from operating companies and were assigned to conduct diligence on top of their day job, Team members were often inexperienced, not motivated and difficult to manage.
Happy to answer any additional questions.
I can definitely relate to your points.
The two cons that resonated with me the most were:
Decision making - As a CD lead you are more of a conduit to get deals done and shepherd a process. At the end of the day, the business unit head is the one who is driving the go/no go decision. CD may have some input on valuation but from a strategic point of view the executive that will run the business post close....which makes sense since it will fall under his/her P&L.
Internal Diligence Team - It can be pretty frustrating at times (probably more often than not) to work with internal diligence folks. As you mentioned, doing diligence isn't their day job and its really tough to keep people on deadlines. Also, if these people are seasoned with M&A - a lot of times they don't really know what to look for....which puts the onus on the CD lead.