Monkeys, I figured I would pay my respects to this forum by thanking everyone for their insight, and knowledge; as well as their willingness to share both. Just for some context, I played lacrosse at an unheard of non-target that was essentially a community college. I graduated with a 3.9, and didn't have relevant internship experience. After graduation I took a job in Derivative Ops at a shop in Charlotte and hated every minute of it. Fast forward 18 months, and I made the jump from BO to F600 Corp Strategy/Dev (yet to close a deal this year, but discussions are in play). With the way everything played out, I couldn't be happier.
Somehow I managed to land this job by:
Utilizing this Forum- don't take this site for granted, there are some people in the finance community willing to help people attempting to break into this industry
Consistently Networking- Just like they say in here, I probably met with > 60 for coffee, which resulted in about a dozen FO final interviews (but no offers)
Reaching out to old friends- Don't think that old connections are obsolete
Calling Recruiters
Constantly Strive for Education - Use Wall street prep; take classes at your work; learn excel shortcuts; do as much as you can to make yourself standout in an interview
Crush you current job- The work you do currently is what you'll use as a talking point in an interview. My OPs manager HATED me, but couldn't deny my thirst for more work.
If anyone has any questions, ask away!
Good stuff, congrats! Were you able to relocate out of Charlotte? I was there for a year out of college - couldn't wait to get out.
I did, I landed back in the Mid Atlantic (where I grew up).
Very inspiring, congratulations! I am currently an FP&A Analyst (1st year) in a F200 tech firm, and working in strategy/corp dev is an eventual goal of mine. Seeing as how most strat/corp dev units hire directly from IB and big 3 consulting firms, how do you think I can break in? I am definitely planning to pursue my MBA down the line, but would it be possible to go from MBA directly to strategy/corp dev and skip consulting/IB?
Thanks!
So, the way things worked at this group ended really well in my favor. Within the first two months being here they repositioned our group within strategy, and then last week announced that we will start get involved in M&A work. Essentially I jumped two steps purely out of luck.
That being said, I really think you can pitch the FP&A work into strategy quite easily. You're seeing the business from an operational perspective, looking at the numbers, and guiding the business verticals on how to reach their goals (implementing technology, delaying hiring, etc). All of these are problems strategy usually has to deal with. I'm assuming you have a lot of exposure to the business side you're covering?
Any plans to get out of Corp Dev to something better?
"Something Better" is a relative term; I definitely aspire to go to business school.
If you have the hustle to break into CF then you should probably consider MBA.
Dude I love the 60 + coffee chats estimate.. The networking grind is real! I broke into IB from ops recently and had had at least 120 networking calls and roughly 30 coffee chats.. Anything is possible if you keep networking
Haha right? The struggle when you're in ops is so real
congrats! what is your range in salary and how much did it increase by from your prior role? (assuming it went up)
I came in as a second year analyst- salaries range from 77-85 roughly w/5-9% bonus; huge step up from ops @roughly 62
you know craig?
What industry are you in now and did you get any pushback when pivoting from financial services? How much are salary bumps at each promotion in corp dev?
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