Corporate Development M&A -> Full-Time Banking Analyst
I got my bachelor's in finance and economics in 2019, and I just finished a corporate finance rotation program at my company. As part of this program, I worked in M&A within the company's corporate development department. Through this, I developed an interest in getting onto the banking side. I'm looking for a full-time analyst role, but I've so far only seen senior analyst openings that require IB experience (I've still been applying to them).
Any advice for leveraging my limited corporate development experience to get into banking? I figure that with the current surge in deal flow, now might be my best opportunity to get into the field. I'd also like to avoid going back to school (undergrad was a rip off, and I can't imagine getting an MBA from Zoom University would be any better).
I've been networking through LinkedIn and email, but haven't had the greatest response rate. I appreciate any guidance you guys might have for me.
Your best shot will be through networking. I started in corporate banking and took me a little over a year of networking and interviews to lateral into IB. So be patient and continue to reach out to people as it will realistically take some time to make the move. Cold emails have a low hit rate so it's more of a numbers game so just continue to pump those out. If your email is tailored right, your hit rate with alums should be decent, with all other people that you don't have a strong connection to like an alma mater the response will be low (I would have to look back at my excel tracker I used for networking to confirm but want to say my response rate with alums was definitely 50%+ and then with everyone was more like 5-10% probably). I never reached out on LinkedIn personally (for some reason to me it feels cheesy, and I'm personally more likely to respond to an email than a LinkedIn request but could just be me so that's how I did it). Would track down as many people on LinkedIn or team pages on IBs websites, then use the bank's email format and shoot an email. If they don't respond I would follow up like 1.5-2 weeks later. If they didn't respond after the second email, I just marked them down as no response and moved on. Once I made a connection, I would follow up periodically to see if staffing needs have changed at all (the best times for hiring seem to be mid-summer after bonus season). I would say my follow ups were usually spready out after like 3-4 months between each other (sooner if I saw an application open up within their group then I would ping my connection saying I saw the job posting and would love to chat with more of the group blah blah blah). Although it feels like a waste of time to do the online applications, I would continue to apply to everything (again I had a job tracker excel where I basically had every bank listed out and once or twice a week I would go through LinkedIn (filter for investment banking jobs in cities I was interested in) and each banks career website and see what new IB jobs were posted and apply. You never know what you might get a response on with the online applications and have a chance to interview for. My biggest piece of advice is to be patient and don't get discouraged early on. If you are truly passionate about the switch, it will realistically probably take some time to make it happen but just keep a long term view of things
Thanks for taking the time to give such a response. I think I just need to double, if not triple, my networking efforts. What are your thoughts on applying to "experienced analyst" roles with only half a year of corp. dev work on my resume? The other experience I've got on my resume (various corporate finance roles) can mostly be spun as applicable to IB, but obviously the corporate development work is the most directly transferable.
Why are you trying to break into banking after you're in an MA corp dev role?
Trust me, you're in a way healthier spot that anyone in an M&A IB role...most junior bankers are trying to get to where YOU are. The only time it makes sense to move into banking from corporate M&A is at the ED/MD level
I was only in corporate development as part of the rotation program. Anyway, while I was on the team, deal flow was virtually non-existent. I wasn't getting the deal "reps" needed to develop a proper skillset in the field. When I "graduated" from the program I accepted a role that provides many of the same responsibilities as a banking analyst would have, so I wouldn't be just sitting around on a team that wasn't really doing anything.
Honestly going to be pretty slim chances for a reputable bank to take on an off-cycle analyst with no deal experiences.
I got shot down by many banks with multiple closed deals in a corp dev role. This is after working extensively with BBs and EBs and developing relationships with senior folks. Likewise, I think it may be a bit of a longshot to lateral into another corp dev role if you don't have any meaningful experience.
Best advice I can give is network your way into the corp dev team and get some deal reps or at least some process reps if you can. It's a seller's market, so maybe you can weasel your way via networking into an offer (subject to you nailing the prerequisite technical questions, etc.). Otherwise, MBA is path of least resistance.
I would think best is trying to get in touch with bankers that cover your current employer. See if you can work with/for them and take it from there
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