I've read a lot of the Q&As and figured now would be a good time to give back. I've worked in Corporate Strategy for an F500 for four years, before which I graduated from a top 10 US university. Ask me anything!
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What a typical career progression (along with comp) for an average performer and for a top performer?
Do you see significant differences based on industry?
For my group very dependent on when you enter the team. I'm one of only a few people who have started out of undergrad in recent years but for anyone the progression would be to stay in corporate strategy a few years and enter into the business as a product head, business unit strategist, or more of a niche role depending on interest and background. Comp is similar to consulting in out group so probably 80-90k all-in after undergrad, 150-200k in the few years post-MBA, and maybe 300-400k for someone who has 10-15 years of experience.
For someone like me who's more junior, the typical path is b-school or usually to a whole new industry. My past colleagues in my spot have gone into consulting, growth strategy in other industries or start-ups, and even in one case asset management (entry-level role).
There's not a ton of difference in comp for high vs. low performers which has been one of my biggest frustrations. For someone my level a top performer might get 25k bonus and a lower one might get 20k. At the more senior level it might look more like 100k vs. 80k but still not anything like IB/PE. However, you see the benefit in getting promoted faster still--a top performer might make MD-level by 30 but a lower one not until 35 or possibly not ever.
I'm sure it's slightly different across industries and more relevantly across individual firms but that's been my (admittedly narrow) experience.
Essentially an associate, yes (though we use different titles) with potential to VP-level promotion in the next year. My goals are less typical as I probably want to pivot industries post-MBA to something like IB or hopefully AM/PE longer-term in some capacity. Most people in my role who are post-MBA or closer to MD level are typically interested in being CEO of a business longer term or at least a key P&L owner.
Strategy has helped me evaluate markets and businesses and frame problems like a consultant would. It's also given me broad understanding and expertise of my firm's industry and many adjacent industries. More than anything, it's gotten me comfortable advising and being around senior executives/the C-suite day to day and really speak their language, understanding their biggest challenges.
I work in corp dev...even though I always found something appealing about strategy I could never quite picture what the day to day would like like.
Would be very useful if you could give an example of three recent projects you worked on, your role and what the day to day entailed.
Also salary for somebody at senior manager level would be useful.
This answer will differ a ton across firms and levels but for me I'd bucket the projects into 3 groups:
My last three projects were two of the first variety and one of the third, each for 3-6 months. I'm usually working alongside a small team of 2-3 teammates, business unit heads, corporate finance, and sometimes external consultants/bankers to conduct market analysis, internal projections/financials, and make decks for managements. There are also tons of side things that pop up like the CFO asks for an analysis to be done, or a major client has come up to bid and the business wants strategy's perspective and approach.
Day to day is overall a mix of being in excel, ppt, and meetings. Honestly the %s vary a ton but some projects are 50/50 ppt/meetings, some are 70/20/10 excel/ppt/meetings, it just varies.
Comp for someone at a senior manager level would probably be 300k all in or so (maybe 200-220 base, 80-100 bonus).
Hopefully this is helpful, happy to go into more detail on any aspect
I also started corp development directly out of undergrand (1.5 yrs of experience here). I'm not at a F500, but at an acquisitive private company
There's not many with our background and I'm just starting now to think about my next steps as I would also like to end up in PE. I could try to pivot into IB in my industry's coverage group and then make the move. Or try to go to Bschool->IB->PE as you mentioned
What has your experience been like when looking for other opportunities and coming from a non-traditional background? Do you see going into IB/Bschool first as a prerequisite to PE or VC? Also which types of Bschools would you be targeting?
Appreciate that we're both in a unique position. The recruiting game has been one of my greatest struggles professionally for many reasons.
For background, I didn't even consider another role until ~1.5 years in, and as I started to look around particularly at my friends who went IB>PE and some MBB>PE (knew many from both of these from undergrad), I did more due diligence on career paths. As I read up tons on PE, I realized it was my dream role and wanted to improve my chances there.
Unfortunately I also realized PE without IB or MBB is all but impossible, so I considered ways to get there. I interviewed around years 2-3.5 at a mix of 3 types of roles: 1. Investment banks, about 3 of which were top EB (think EVR, LAZ, Moelis, PJT) and a few very small 30-100 person firms. Got offers from the latter set by virtue of my resume/background (but no path from them to PE) but the EBs always went hard on technicals or I realized the groups didn't actually interest me as much as I thought (i.e., they were more support groups without a path to the buyside) 2. Investing roles in PE FoF, secondaries, and family offices. Got 3-4 offers from these places but saw no path to direct PE investing and comp was only a hair better than my current role but in NY with way higher CoL. Also saw they were worse feeders to top b-schools 3. Strategy roles at UMM PE shops. These roles were all top comp (close to PE associate level) and interesting work but no direct path to an investing role. I considered this role>MBA>PE investing could happen but very unlikely. I got an unbelievable offer recently to join a top UMM/MF in this role but turned it down to start the b-school process and hope for the best
Short answer--no, this role has not helped me towards PE. Ironically being at an LEK/ATK/OW would probably give me a better path to PE even though I genuinely feel my role is more challenging, difficult to secure, and applicable to PE. Recruiters and PE shops don't quite understand the role or how to rank it vs. more common roles.
I targeted M-7 b-schools and a couple 8-15. Got into 2 M-7 programs and will be attending one next year. Admitted to all the programs 8-15 I applied to with scholarship but I still don't see a direct path to PE unfortunately In hindsight I probably would have pushed hard around 2 years in to get a MM/EB IB role and then go into MM PE, or lateral to BB and go UMM PE. It would have taken until 5 years experience and I would've been 2-3 years behind peers, but the path to PE has all but closed at this point no matter how hard I push or learn about the field
Assume you mean at the PE shops and not corp strategy? If so it was mostly behavioral/asking about my job:
Overall very few if any technical questions. In fact at one firm I had 4 one-hour interviews and two of them were the CEO/founder and CFO explaining to me for 30-40 minutes their vision for the firm and where my role would fit in, and 20-30 minutes of getting my reaction to that information/explaining why I would be interested given that detail.
Oh and love the username lol
Personally, what are you favorite parts about the job and what are your pet peeves. What's the shit that make you consider leaving the job and whats is it that makes you want to stay?
Favorites:
Getting to work on the highest profile projects in the firm that often are industry-shaping. Often very exciting
Typically working with very senior executives directly at a very young age, and they're genuinely trusting of my opinion
The hours and lack of travel--so much better than IB/consulting
Disadvantages:
*Gets a little monotonous working with one "client" for every project compared to IB/consulting
Not a real long-term career path so transition is less clear
External firms don't really understand exactly what I do; if I were to work in consulting the exit opps would be way clearer and more opps would come my way for doing mostly the same work
Very little on the job training relative to a formal analyst program because I'm the most junior team member by far
People throughout the firm sometimes put menial tasks on us because we're not hourly hires like a consulting firm, so work that isn't true "strategy" work is placed on us when it's not the most efficient use of our group (but this doesn't happen extremely often)
Hi Wabo, did you have any prior MBB experience and would you reckon a prior MBB experience as absolutely necessary and does anyone in your team / the industry you know of, does not originate from an MBB.
Is truly everything in the world doable as long as you want it hard enough or perhaps an MBB experience definitely necessary?
What are the deal-breakers or key learning take aways needed for such roles? Key skills required for such roles?
I was straight out of undergrad without MBB experience (I think I noted it but lost in the many posts earlier). I don't think it's absolutely necessary but certainly helps a ton. My team over time has had ~50% ex-MBB, 30-40% ex-tier 2 firms (Deloitte, OW, Strategy&), and 10-20% other experience (usually strategy types of roles within our industry or firm for several years, including one person who has a PhD and then went into a strategy role in a totally different industry for a few years).
The roles generally teach strategic framing, PowerPoint building, executive presence/presentation, and analytical skills. Certainly possible to gain without MBB but even MBB experience in another sector is probably viewed as equal to deep strategic knowledge through analytical roles in your target sector for 5+ years. Differs by firm of course but that's my generalized perception.