Q&A: Tech sales, to corporate strategy, to corpdev M&A in

Question

I've had a very strange but fun career path so far and get a lot of questions from peers and friends about the nuances of making such big leaps between such different roles. I also think that it's important for people to realize that you can do a lot of cool jobs without having to go through a prestigious banking or consulting analyst program out of undergrad.

Ask away!

technocrat · Accepted Answer

Highly dependent on the industry you're in.

technocrat · Answer

1. My sales and corporate strategy roles were in the SaaS industry (traditional enterprise software), while my current Strategic Finance/Corporate Development role is in the deeptech/hardtech industry (very R&D and hardware heavy).

2. I had a mixed experience in my corporate strategy role. I worked with sales leaders, sales-support functions, product managers, and product suite VPs on a wide range of projects; most of which involved gathering, cleaning, structuring, deeply analyzing, and then presenting very large datasets to help key leaders in their decision-making.

technocrat · Answer

definitely don't count out IB - it can fast-track you to a lot of cool buy-side roles. that said, pure finance roles aren't for everyone. getting involved hands on in building cool companies can be much more rewarding for some. for undergrad specifically...

general advice to undergraduate would be to party a lot / develop good social networks and social skills, don't get bad grades but also don't overwork yourself in the classroom. the social element of college/youth in general is very important and should not be overlooked.

sixmongoos · Answer

Thanks for the detail insights! I definitely agree on your comment regarding "creating work for the sake of creating work," as I experienced something similar during my short stint in infra corp dev. While these "strategic" roles can sound sexy on paper and you definitely learn a lot, I found myself disappointed at times as a lot of the projects you work hard on lack actionability.

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Q&A: Tech sales, to corporate strategy, to corpdev M&A in <3 years

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Q&A: Tech sales, to corporate strategy, to corpdev M&A in <3 years

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