Hi everyone. Hope everyone has been doing well and staying healthy during this time. A little background about myself. I went to Baruch College for undergraduate, majored in Finance, and did an internship at a boutique PE firm. Post graduation I spent 2 years in corporate finance at J.P. Morgan working on operating model strategy. After working on operating model and getting exposures to management consulting via consultants whom I have worked with, I decided to shift my career toward management consulting or corporate strategy. I then spent 1 year at an asset management firm working on FP&A and Strategic Finance. The role filled in the quantitative skillset gap that I didn't get much from my role at J.P. Morgan. Currently I am a Corporate Strategy Analyst at a retail company working across brands to drive strategy development and structure initiatives around supply. In the near future I am planning to either go back to school for a MBA or start something on my own.
Feel free to ask me any questions and I will try my best to answer!
Thank you all.
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Great write-up / +1 SB
What was your networking strategy back then?
I have tried different networking strategies and each has it’s pros and cons.
Cold call/ email: I have found a high successful rate through cold email. All of time I make sure that there is an open position that I am interested before reaching out. It is highly effective to get in touch with the hiring manager or the associated recruiting manager. Without doing any homework and just reaching out mindlessly is pretty much a waste of time.
From my experience I find that it is best to do your research first on who or which team is hiring for the specific position that you want. Then present yourself and ask how you could best position yourself for an interview. Many companies have internal recruiting systems that show who the hiring manager is for a specific job post. You could probably get those information from your network. However, be mindful to not present yourself as annoying when you cold call/ email. He or she is doing you a big favor and show your appreciation for their time.
Alumni: I have reached out to alumni who I knew work on teams that were recruiting. They were very open to share their experience with the company and the team and also passed my resume along to the hiring manager. Alumni is a highly effective networking resource for both recruiting and learning about a job.
Career fair (NABA, ALPFA, ASCEND, and etc.): these career conferences could be a great place to land a BO, MO, accounting or other entry level positions. The positions could be much less “prestige” compare to IBD, PE, AM and etc. However, there are networks that could be valuable to you after the conference. For example, I had the pleasure to connect with the CFO of a BB during a career conference. After the career conference he connected me with the head of derivatives. Even though I didn’t have the skill set that qualifies for a position on his team, it was a tremendous networking experience.
LinkedIn: I always utilize LinkedIn network for interview preparations and learning about a company/ position. I find a lot of people are welcome to share what they do or their experience with a company. Usually I ask if they would have 30 mins to share their experience via a phone call.
Tbh there isn’t a specific networking strategy that I go with. They are all effective and rewarding in different ways. Just be mindful that not present yourself as annoying. I sometimes ask my network if there is anything that I could help or network that I could share in return. Most of the time their answer were “no”, but the question itself shows that you are a considerate person (it’s all about good impression).
What led you to Corporate Finance out of undergrad in place of the traditional 2yr stint in IB?
Ideally I would have gone through that route, but timing did not work out for me. I was transferred from pre-med during my junior year and I wasted some time to grasp the whole recruiting process in the world of finance. My first internship was during the second semester of my senior year.
I have tried to break into IB for a few months around the time of graduation, but reality did not turn out as I was planned. I got into final rounds for a few IB Analyst positions for securitization and structured finance, but failed. Majority of the feedbacks were that my technical skills were not competitive compare to other applicants. Corporate finance on the other hand was much easier to break in so I went through that route instead.
Based on my experience a few lessons that I learned are:
Understand the recruiting process and start asap - unlike the recruiting process in some industries which you see the result at the finish line, the recruiting process in finance is a marathon of experience building. For anyone who is transferring into finance, timing is everything. Start asap and don't wait
To not rush graduation - graduation is just a paper, it's the skillset that one acquires will decided where he or she ends up (networking is as important). Personally I would delay my graduation to earn more time to build my credential and ideally do an IB SA program
Networking and learning about your resources - the mentality in pre-med is to get good grades, kill the MCAT, and get accepted into medical school. Grade in finance is just a small part of the whole. Learning what is needed to achieve one's end goal in finance is crucial, and there is no better way to learn that than from networking (in school with fellow classmate, professors...) and utilizing the resources around (in school professional organization, career center...). This could mean very much to new transferred students
Above are just some of my thoughts based on my experience. Hope it helps.
Thanks so much for the detailed answer! It helped a lot!!
Thanks a lot for doing this and congrats on your success.
Can you speak on recruiting for corporate strategy / development roles? I'm aware that its far less structured than PE. How did you find your current role - was it through your own network or a different channel?
From what I have learned, CS and CD have very different recruiting and interview processes. It is quite common to see management consultants exiting into CS and investment bankers exiting into CD. I personally can not speak for corporate development.
I found my current role via LinkedIn and at the time I was interviewing for 2 corporate strategy roles. For me it first starts with tailoring my resume to the qualification of corporate strategy positions, which focus on prior strategy experiences and analytical/ quantitative/ qualitative skillsets. The hiring teams might emphasize on specific backgrounds depending on the type of strategy role that is hiring (general, digital, operation, growth, market, M&A, and etc.).
The interview process for corporate strategy roles is case study oriented. I did one case on market entry for blockchain utilization, and the other case was on cost analysis and trade war impact. Both cases were done offline and submitted for review for the second round interviews. Some corporate strategy interviews involve with on-site case study. These case studies are similar to those in management consulting interviews. Case in Point is a good starting point if you have never had case practice. Case Interview Frameworks by Victor Cheng is another great resource. Once you've read these 2 areas, you can start practice doing cases.
The second round is a presentation of my case to the teams. Last round with both teams were conversational. Usually by the end of the presentation round they already have an idea of who to hire. This was the recruiting process that I went through and hope this is helpful.
Very helpful - thanks a lot for such a detailed response.
Are you concerned on how job hopping will look for bschool?
That is one thing that I thought of when looking back at my career path. However, I am not concerned at all. Statistically and traditionally business schools recruit a considerable amount of students with investment banking and management consulting backgrounds. But in recent decades many schools emphasize more in background diversities, they now leave more openings to people with a non-traditional background. I personally see myself falling in that category.
I have always wanted to work in strategy, but its not easy to break in. Knowing that I was not going directly into IB or MC right out of collage, I intentionally looked for jobs that would strategically build my credential. Each job contributed the skillset or project experience that I needed to get me to where I am today. I sure took a detour there, haha.
Also business school is an option rather than a destination. I have ran a small business for two years during undergraduate. Building something on my own has alway been in the back of my mind. Entrepreneurial experience is highly valued in business school. I have met several entrepreneurs who later went back to top business schools after founding their businesses. In the end of the day business school is all about networking value, and they welcome those who can present such intrinsic value.
I will further evaluation my options and decide when the time comes.
I'd love to hear more about the strategic finance role, why you moved to it and what skills you learned there/how it differed from your other corporate finance role. Do you recommend strategic finance as a role in corp fin in general? Also how do you feel your role in strategic finance set you up for your current role (pros/cons)?
Sorry for all the questions, thanks in advance!
Strategic finance can be a attractive career path for many in terms of lifestyle, project challenges, and decent pay. What are some reasons you decided to leave this route and pursue corp strat?
Strategic finance is a great career path especially for someone who is looking to progress into the corporate management level (CFO, Director of Finance and etc.). I agree with you that the lifestyle is well balanced. On a normal week one can expect to work 40-50hrs, and 70-80hrs during reporting reason. Project varies depending on the company and timing. There are projects like modeling and analyzing complex business transactions or participating in the financial component on M&A opportunities that could be very interesting and challenging. Pay is pretty decent per the lifestyle that one would get. Another factor to be considered is job security. If a company were to bankrupt, the FP&A/ Strategic Finance team would probably be the last team to be disbanded.
The main reason why I left this route and pursued corporate strategy is the difference in working nature between the two. At the strategic finance role I have participated in projects like conducting business plans for investors and board of directors, creating 5-year financial strategy, system automation, and etc., but the overall experience was reporting oriented. Eventually the work became repetitive. I like the project nature of consulting that each project could be different and post new challenges, and corporate strategy shares that nature. I currently work on the whitespace team, which is project oriented. My team gets to work on initiatives that no one else has done previously at the firm. I really enjoy working across brands within our company and the project diversity that it presents.
Hi thanks for the great sharing! May I know what is your advice to people who try to move from BB corporate banking to corporate finance? Or it is even feasible from your view.
Have struggled on where to start on the networking part since it is hard to hv angles on skills sets tht matches, appreciate insights or it is worth it to go back to business school for tht as opportunity cost seems quiet high at that end, great thanks!
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