Locked in for Corporate Finance, where to go from here?
Hey everyone, in my last year of college at the moment. I did a summer internship and accepted a FT offer for a Corporate Finance role at a large asset manager. Location is good, pay is about 76-80k/yr tc depending on bonus for that year. I feel marginally burned since some of my peers/friends are the ones accepting these crazy BB roles in IB, AM, ST - while I'm not necessarily jealous I am a little disappointed because I can handle workload and brainpower at the same capacity these peers do.
It feels like a great place to start but it really isn't where I want to end up. I'd really like a shot at moving towards one of the more competitive front office roles, whether it's a BB or Boutique. While I have yet to start the full time role, I want to start being proactive in trying for another shot at something a bit more competitive and enriching than CorpFi, or at least feel content with the fact that I gave myself a shot at some of these competitive lines of finance. I was able to build out some experience in Fixed Income this summer and want to improve the skillset, but the FT Analyst role is a 4-group rotation for 2 years where you aren't necessarily guaranteed what group you may end up in.
Does anyone on here have stories from moving into a similar CorpFi role and moving into something higher-paying, more industry competitive? It feels like most of the people I meet and networked with who are more solidified took a track that had a conventional trajectory, and I feel a little disappointed that I may be heading in a direction where I wouldn't have given myself a shot to at least experience a competitive, high capacity role.
I do not have experience with your particular situation, but it was common for my masters program to sign a FT offer directly after and internship or 1+ year out from actually starting FT. I had a number of friends make a move between groups or to different companies between the end of the internship and starting full time. I also helped with recruiting at my previous company and saw a number of similar situations.
I'll start by saying a rotational program is a great place to start, if you crushed it and landed in an interesting group or internally interviewed for a front office position then that would be a great start to your career.
First, since it sounded like you accepted your role and can't ask for an extension, could you ask to interview or recruit to a front office position at the same AM? Or would this be an automatic no from HR at the firm? Do you have a FT analyst/associate/mentor at the firm you could ask about it? Second, could you recruit with other roles in your area of interest? This all gets very complicated, especially if your schools career office is involved or there's a risk of your current AM seeing you at career or interview events. But at the end of the day, it's your career and you need to do what is best for you. If a recession hit, your AM firm wouldn't bat an eye at rescinding your FT position.
Absolutely stellar response, thank you. For context - rescinding at my school is a blacklist from the competitive finance program(s), so re-recruiting after sending the offer is absolutely out of the question for me. I would consider myself 100% locked in for this CorpFi position upon graduation, as I already signed the offer once my other interviews either fell through or couldn't turn around with an offer quickly enough.
I'm going to be positioning myself for interviewing for a front office role in the firm when I get there to hopefully present it as an option, though my chances are difficult as my company is notorious for promoting/filling up positions externally over currents, though I see it as a good personal goal to at least work in that direction.
For now, I've essentially banked on the fact that the corporate finance rotational roles I'll be filling up pertain directly to certain lines of business associated with the front office roles, and getting a CFA. This or getting an MBA down the line if I really need to rebrand. Besides that, I'm more or less pretty aimless in how I can hopefully solidify opportunities in the front office direction I'd like to go in.
No problem. I figured they would have rules around offers, etc. Do you think it's worth asking an analyst/mentor at your AM if HR would be receptive to you interviewing for a FO role prior to starting? Sounds like they wouldn't but I had some friends at CO firms switch between groups or at big4 switch from audit or tax to advisory, might be worth a shot.
I still think a rotational program is a great place to start. Being at the top of your peer group and getting a CFA will help set you up for FO. I won't comment on that process bc I haven't done it, but I'm inclined to think that after the program you'd be considered internally for FO or you'd be a great candidate for a boutique or regional AM where the lines are more blurred between front/middle office. You may find a CF group that is transaction heavy or provides ad hoc analysis, etc. to management that you enjoy as well. Best of luck!
Awesome, huge thanks for the input. I'll bring up the idea of reaching out to a couple An1's that I met if re interviewing is possible at this point without losing out on my current position. I was among the top interns for our group so even if getting FO after the rotation isn't in the cards, it does sound like a strong possibility of being able to move to a boutique AM as long as I'm doing my best at some of the AM/IM work and supplementing with doing the CFA during my Senior yr of college.
Once again, thanks a ton for making some of these tracks a bit clearer with the input - it's obvious you have a lot of industry experience so gaining feedback like this from fellow CorpFi people means a lot.
I know that feeling. Due to the level of recruiting at my school, when I landed an FLDP offer it made for one of the best starting roles of anyone in my class. My first rotation was so unglamorous and required so little brain power that it got me feeling like I wasn't hitting my potential and was selling myself short. I can see you feeling the same way if mediocre classmates are landing top IB offers.
I can't speak to re-recruiting or anything like that, but I will say that an MBA really does let you pivot. A few of my FLDP contemporaries have gone to T7 and T15 programs and have pivoted to BB IB, MBB, etc. Keep that option in your back pocket.
Another path is to go for the "big fish in a small pond" approach. Many corporates are filled with people who get to SFA and are happy doing the same task over and over, year after year. They don't push for more responsibility, don't try to acquire skills to advance, don't "look the part" to get promoted. It isn't terribly difficult to stand out if you do these things. You have to be strategic and make sure that you are getting useful experience and jump to different groups or companies if opportunities are not opening up for you, but it is not a bad path to be the high-powered, high-potential person among a group of mediocre people.
That is the logic that has guided my career- I graduated ~7 years ago and was making ~60k out of college. I've made a few jumps and have more than tripled my pay- hoping to make that a quadruple in the next few months. This is all while working <60hr weeks (in some roles I was actually working ~10hrs) in LCOL areas. The work gets a lot more interesting too as you climb.
A couple tips:
1) Dress the part. If everyone wears polos and jeans, wear a button down and jeans. Make sure your clothes and shoes are all fresh. Get a monthly haircut. Practice good hygiene. What people see is their reality, and what they need to see is an upwardly mobile, high potential employee. "Budding executive" needs to be the look. Don't go too far with it, but you should dress a slight notch above the rest.
2) Look for a manager who can champion you. This means a few things: ideally your boss is a director or higher so that you are not so buried in the org that your manager has no pull. The more face time with execs, the better. If your manager advanced quickly in their career, odds are higher they'll be willing to give you more responsibility. A good rule of thumb is that they'll advance you no faster than they were advanced. Another form of this advice is to "have a rich boss", because a 20k raise looks tiny to them but is important to you.
3) If promotions are not presenting themselves on your timeline, jump. This one is key. If you take too long to get early career promos, you lose the image of being high-powered. You spend more time doing the most mind-numbing tasks that aren't preparing you for what you'll actually be doing later in your career. Accelerate through the analyst years as fast as possible.
Good luck!
Love this response, thank you. Sounds like from responses in this thread and some similar discussions on here that MBA (from a good program) seems like more or less of a Wild card for when the move is necessary.
It sounds like the model for finding success is relatively more traditional, in terms of dressing the part, making valuable connections, etc. which makes sense since people there are likely a bit more tenured than IB which seems to cycle its workforce fairly frequently.
As I mentioned in another response, the place in which I'm working for is infamously bureaucratic, likely because it's in the line of being a massive asset manager. It also has a reputation among employees there for giving promotion spots to external hires.
I guess what you're more or less suggesting is maintain pace and fall in line with promotions, only jump when I'm losing pace or getting passed up for opportunities? I know the more traditional timeline of 2 years, but I'll need to be there to get a feel for when I should be moving up, so that can be something I keep in mind when I start my work there.
You definitely gave me some great ideas to think about, I really appreciate your advice!
I would say that odds are extremely high that you don't stay with one company your entire career. That said, it's better (especially in the analyst years) to move at a more widely accepted pace of promotions as opposed to the pace of the specific company. Some companies are infamous for title deflation- where hitting SFA is equal to manager at other companies, or hitting manager is equal to director. Be very wary of situations like this- title deflation doesn't matter when you stay with the company, but when you try to jump it can hamper you. It is normal and common to jump as a manager to a director role, but much more difficult to jump as an SFA to a director role, even if SFA is a deflated title.
What I'm getting at is not to look to get promoted at the pace unique to your company, but to keep with the pace of 2yrs FA -> 2-3yrs SFA ->2-4yrs Manager, director at 10-12 years total experience.
Keep in mind though- this is all a game plan if you decide to stay on the corporate side of things. You could quickly decide that you would rather bust your ass in your 20s and pivot to IB to super charge your career- in that case I'd say to get the MBA.
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