How limited is your career by your industry?
Does the industry you're in limit your options? In the early years of your career. For example, marketing analyst in retail to something in healthcare? Or energy to transportation? Talking mainly corporate strategy-type roles. I just landed my first job out of college and I'm really excited about it. Within the industry, it's one of the best places to be. But, I'm not sure how much the industry itself interests me in the long-run. Just curious about this topic. Thanks!
Bump.
dont worry with corporate strategy under your belt out of undergrad, you can easily go to MBB consulting.
Really? I'm not sure if I have the definition of "corporate strategy" right. I'm an entry-level business analyst for a F50 company with more than 100 billion dollars of revenue. I went to a fairly unknown undergrad with a mediocre GPA. I networked like crazy to get this job and that's the only way I got it. Do you really think I could just jump over to MBB? Or is "corporate strategy" something different than what I'm thinking? Thanks for your insight!
No. In some cases junior employees may develop certain skills that apply to only one industry (e.g. bank modeling in FIG IB), but the vast majority of a junior skillset is industry agnostic. I started my career at an industry-focused boutique, lateraled to a coverage group at a MM after a year, and then moved into corp dev after spending a year at this MM. All three of these roles were in three completely different industries.
not limited at all. the sky is the limit
If you're in an industry for say 20 years or so, yes, that can definitely limit you. But within the first 10 years you won't be limited all that much. Plus, you can always go back for your MBA to switch industries/careers if need be.
People say that, but in practice switching careers via an MBA is a much more difficult prospect than people generally make it out to be unless you had a generalist role or functional overlap in your pre-MBA career.
I'll echo the idea that skill set> industry knowledge at your stage.
It's doubtful that you'll be able to jump straight to MBB consulting, mostly because their hiring is very structured. Top MBA -> MBB should be doable, though. As an admittedly anecdotal counterpoint, I know a guy who did a poly sci master's at a fucking state school satellite campus, got a F500 strategy analyst job, and then jumped to tier 2 strategy consulting, so I guess you never know.
very limited! I work for HC IT and they made me sign non-compete fukkkkkkkkkkkkkk
I also work in HC IT and made me sign a non compete.....
ya it sucks because once you start learning the industry, its hard to move to other competitors... and only way to get another opportunity is from different industry.
I assume you're referring to FP&A roles and similar. corporate finance roles carry over pretty well within industries.
IB industry groups - Can they pigeon hole you? (Originally Posted: 01/17/2012)
If you get assigned to a Industry Group rather than a Product Group, can your exit opps be restricted after the analyst level? Or is it really after the associate/VP level.
Just to clarify, do you mean "CF roles carry over pretty well between industries"?
Most of the time. Niche industries with unusual IS/BS drivers like commercial banking can be harder, and it can also be a bit harder to transfer from a capital unintensive industry to a capital intensive one and vice versa.
interested.
It depends on the group, and what you do there. If you are in an industry group, and try to move to market research at a large investment firm, you will probably cover the same sector. It's also easier to move to the Strat/CorpDev division of companies you cover, although that's more because you are exposed to the companies.
Otherwise, they can open up certain opportunities. For instance, FIG will let you work for FI-centric PE firms, while Tech will naturally make you more attractive to VC and tech funds.
However, if you wanted to move to a traditional PE firm, you would ideally have "normal" modeling experience, as opposed to something unusual like Real Estate, Power & Utilities, or certain parts of FIG (Insurance and Banks, namely). Basically, any coverage group where you do standard, EBITDA based models will let you move to PE.
Product groups keep your options open, but it would be tougher to go from M&A to Riverstone than it would be from Energy, for instance.
Interesting post West Coast. I have heard both sides of the debate for sure and it seems uncertain...but that makes sense. Thanks, great post. Any other people with stories or advice would be awesome.
It doesn't matter much where you come from or where you go in corporate. You pick up a lot of valuable skills in each industry which are very applicable to others and help round out your business acumen.
Where specialization is important is if you're running your own business whether you're a consultant, marketer, supply chain manager, boutique M&A banker etc. If you're specialized in a specific industry clients will generally feel more comfortable using your services because you're more knowledgable, specialized, and focused in their particular field. Specializing gives you more selling points in a pitch. In addition, you can generally charge more for your services and your name is traveling around in a smaller referral pool associated with that industry.
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