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It depends. Tech ECM can give you solid exits (despite the commentary on this forum from 1st year M&A analysts 2 weeks into the job) to VC, or late stage growth - although the lines between the two are blurred nowadays.
Research will be pretty solid across the board. Common exits are pretty much only HF, asset management (fidelity etc) or to IB (within high finance). No to PE (very rare since no deal experience).
If you want to do IB, ECM. If you’re want to do PE, go to ecm then lateral to a group that models. If you want to do HF, research.
How realistic would the exits to corporate development be for each?
I hate saying "low" since paths are very seldom linear, despite what many aspire to on this website. I will leave it at: it's possible.
But let's dig into why. What does corpdev do? Either fully in house M&A, or work with a bank on M&A processes. Research and ECM have very little in common with M&A seats. The "direct" transferrable skillset is low - HOWEVER, it just depends where you go. A startup might LOVE the wall street experience, and just believe in you to hustle. A very large, established company, will have tons of burnt out M&A bankers applying so your chances there are lower.
What I'll say is this: go to the role where you will learn the most, find good mentors, and enjoy working with the people. Being a stud in whatever field you are in often deviates off the beaten path and allows you exit ops that are considered "non-standard", at least that's how it's worked in my career.
Disclaimer: I do not work in M&A, nor CorpDev, just opining based on what I have seen in my career as well as a few friends in related fields to those that you mentioned.
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