First year VP looking to exit potentially to corporate.
What level of roles should I be target? You alway hear about how 1 year of IB = 2-3 years of corporate experience but not sure how true this is.
I would imagine this differs by size of the company but generally speaking, what level of roles can I reasonably get?
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It's all over the place from what I've seen man; anything from CFO of sub $500mm company to treasury functions or even business development. Be careful with those corp. dev. exits though, they can be dead-end jobs. No one gets to CFO from just a purely M&A-style corp dev. role.
Jr VP = Director level role in mid-sized corporate; VP on buyside (rarer but happens)
Sr VP = Senior Director or VP level at mid-sized corporate; potentially CFO roles at smaller companies; would prob take a step back to Jr VP on buyside
I do think exit opps can ramp pretty exponentially as you get more senior. Particularly as you start to develop actual client relationships, jumping to a client usually means more pay and higher title etc than you would elsewhere.
Lol this is so far off. MDs come in at the VP level of corp Dev for F500 - nobody else unless company is low quality / undesirable location.
VPs in IB come in at senior manager or maybe very low end of director scale (if there’s already a relationship with the company)
zero shot VP in IB jumps over to VP in a good buyside role without buyside experience
Your comment holds some merit, but it is way more nuanced than you make it seem. I'd avoid speaking in definite terms in the future because it makes you come off as a know-it-all, when you clearly you do not.
These are first-hand observations from top BB so maybe there’s a brand premium, but promise I’m not lying haha. I’ve seen Associates land Director positions. If you’re a strong performer and leave for a client especially, you can exit above what you’d expect.
How do exits look for a VP with minimal M&A experience?
Banking exits outside buyside are so depressing. They should tell people this in mba programs. After 4 years of killing yourself at a bank working 100hr weeks and getting promoted to VP you can join a fortune 500 Corp dev team as a sr manager earning 180k total comp a year in nyc, sf or la (where you likely would have ended up comp wise had you just stayed in your pre mba career after the same amount of time spent).
And all those banking bonuses was just used to pay off bschool loans. So really nothing was gained during those 2 years of bschool and 4 years in banking
I feel like this is well known. You either exit pre ASO3 or at MD. No man’s land in between
Woah man chill out. Don’t contradict PrivatePyle because he has a mentor badge!! Respect the badge!!
jk glad everyone else chimed in with the obvious consensus
Is it really 180k for a vp level IB person making the switch? I know it’s for wlb but damn that must hurt. Aren’t there more chill options outside of traditional buyout PE on the buyside that pay better?
I did an initial interview for a corp dev position in NYC area and they wanted to do 160 base and like 20k bonus. Had another interview as an ass3 and it was about the same (there was one I found that was like 190k all in, so slightly higher). depressing because nyc is expensive AF now and I was making 130k all in before MBA and would have absolutely been around 180-190k aroundd now had I never left.
positions in lcol areas pay way less too.
Look at things like asset management but truthfully, it's a huge eye opener (huge caveat - speaking only relative to IB - obviously this is a lot of money in general) how low mid-level comp is outside of IB, PE, or HF.
I've seen even director level jobs at top-brand F500s with base salaries of $150k-$175k - and these are not throwing 100% bonus or even 50%.
Dude this is so true I recently had an existential crisis over it. I am an analyst and was getting sick of the stresses that IB comes with and started look elsewhere, initially i was looking at buyside roles but then said F it and wanted better work life balance and started looking at industry/corporate exits.
I was floored when I saw jobs that wanted 2-5 years experience in IB offering $70k base and 10% bonus for an associate level role at companies like Colgate Palmolive and NBC Universal in NYC, my jaw almost dropped to the ground.
I thought after making it in IB for a few years I could just coast to a better gig and get paid at worst at a 10% discount to what I would've been making in IB at the time I left.
So I thought Associate level roles in non IB fields looking for 3ish years experience would also pay $300k all in and VPs and above would be looking at $500k+
I realized that the "golden" exit opps people had touted on here for IB only pertained to hardcore buyside roles and a few other similar jobs like VC or consulting. No one outside of IB is going to pay you even a $200k base without 10+ years experience and even then it comes with a paltry bonus.
I realized that financially, the bullshit i am putting up with is the best that it can get unless i get very lucky and go to one of those unicorn private credit shops where people work 40 hour weeks and from what I've hear people always luckily get those roles and initially accepted the job with the expectation it would be banking 2.0 if not worse.
There is no gold at the end of the IB rainbow, I realized I either have to give up my dreams of a big luxury house in Connecticut with a normal family and a G Wagon or continue to push my mental and physical health to the brink day after day.
Some of you might be rolling your eyes because you knew this already but I didn't, all you ever see on here are the mythical $1m comp paying exit opps from IB after 5 years that people repeat over and over again, its just now I realized most of those comments likely came from people who never made the jump an were likely lying to get wso points.
sorry for the rant
Sorry but where did you ever read that Associate exits would be $300k (all-in) at corporate roles? Associates at banking probably barely crack that these days
Lol man if the corporate exits were only a 10% discount from IB for the corporate 40 hour a week wlb then nobody would do IB. I will say I’ve seen better than the 70k base you mentioned (low 100s base + smaller bonuses like 20%) for corporate exits for analysts which isn’t terrible but definitely won’t scale the way banking comp progresses.
300k after 3 years from IB is literally what non-MF buyside associate opportunities pay so corporate was never going to be the same for half the hours.
You are over catastrophizing. I have a lot of friends not in PE/investing who went the corporate route and are doing great (two close friends are now CFOs of portcos). You just have to be ok with smaller cash comp for 7-10 years until you get to that level (earlier if lucky).
How does exit from mbb as EM level compare against ibd?
Tired of ibd life and corp dev sucks. Thinking if I should make the move to mbb for corp strategy
Why do you think corp dev sucks? Limited exits but otherwise better wlb with similar skillsets and deals as banking if you liked the job, or am I missing something
What about exits for a VP in a product group like LevFin?
idk - as a third year VP, if I exit, it's to a client / someone I have a relationship with. That's really how you get desirable exits imo.
Pay is this bad?
You could get this pay doing like a few years at a Big 4 company and then lateraling somewhere. Would have guessed like $200-300k for an IB senior associate going corporate
Some corporate jobs can be intense too
Its absolutely this bad.
With interest rates near 7%, buying a home in nyc area off 190 to 200k gets you some tear down in a mediocre area with below average public schools.
Truly the American dream.
Think this one is very situation / personnel specific.
Most common I've seen at the VP level is leaving to be head of FP&A, corporate strategy or corporate development for a mid-size client (e.g., $5bn - $10bn market cap), often with a path to CFO or COO of the company.
Path is we are hired as lead left on their IPO. VP leads most of the execution / day to day and builds up a lot of trust with the client. when the client needs to fill that position, the VP is their first call. I have no idea what these positions are paid, but it sure as hell isn't $200k.
Would imagine exits look very different if you're forced out in a bad market or if you're at a bank that traditionally doesn't get hired for lead left roles.
This is not "common" at all and this post is complete nonsense for anyone taking it seriously.
People in IB do not have an FP&A skillset - you are not going to get hired as a Head of FP&A function coming from IB.
Moving to corporate strategy or corp. dev is very common, but not as a Head. As an MD? Yes, very possible. Not as a VP unless it is some very small startup.
VP on an IPO is not going to make a big enough impression on a client to get hired, either. Have you worked on an IPO? Jesus the advice on this website by some people is so bad. Truly the blind leading the blind.
I'm the guy up top who said that I had en existential crisis after realizing most people lie about just how good and lucrative IB exit opps are.
The comment you just shit on that had you bewildered is very common here on WSO, saying that you can leave as a VP to become c suite or head of a department in a mid to large corporate is an often repeated WSO myth.
Actually working in IB and seeing that a lot of VPs are in their mid 20s barely out of college in the grand scheme of things is really an eye opener
There are so many comments like that i was convinced
VPs at a top BB absolutely can lead majority of major efforts for IPO. I feel like I’m in a parallel universe reading some of these posts but maybe there really is more of a gap between top BBs and the rest, or it’s different in TMT than the rest.
To be honest, I'm speaking from personal experience here.
The skillset required for FP&A is exactly the skillset you learn in banking. Forecasting / budgeting you learn from building out operating models and layering in additional expenses / pro forma adjustments required to go public or account for acquisitions .
In preparing for the analyst day presentation, you learn the company's financials in and out and have to in order to give advice on how best to maximize value.
In putting together investor presentations, you learn how to synthesize the key components of the company's performance and present it in a way that's most compelling to investors.
In preparing countless S-1's, you get a feel for the commentary required to explain year over year and quarter over quarter changes in performance in preparing the first cut of the MD&A and see investor reaction first hand in their questions in investor presentations. In sitting in and coordinating investor presentations, you listen in on 100s of hours of investor Q&A and get a pretty good feel for what they want to know.
In putting together the S-1s, you also see the KPIs investors focus on for that particular area and how they compare to all of their peers.
I could go on and on...
Also a VP now and honestly a bit lost.
Know I don’t want to be in banking forever but also don’t know anything else.
It’s real guys, if you know Banking isn’t for you, exit asap. Latest before VP.
Can VPs exit at VP level in F500 or is it AVP level at that point? Also when can you exit at SVP and EVP levels? It seems that you could progress faster if just joining the F500 out of school. Someone please prove otherwise.
He’s to leave pre VP or at MD. Otherwise you are in a real no man’s land at corporates
One could achieve slightly lower of 150k in a low COL job had they chosen a blue chip company to do LDP or just work at big 4.
Less stressful, better hours, more stability and broader exit (FP&A, treasury, all sorts of finance function exits vs the garbage corp dev exits which are often filled with hardo ex-bankers).
I regretted and I am not even sure if it makes any sense for any aspiring kids who decided to suffer 6 years for slightly more money going with the path with more resistance. It's definitely worse if one did 4-5 years corporate jobs then spent 2 years at an M7 and 4 more years in IBD. They could probably achieve 200k had they stayed in corporate with 250k MBA fees saved and without suffering the 4 years at an IB
So everyone's just gonna sit here and pretend $200k all-in is bad comp? Yes it's a fraction of IB money but I still feel better off than most in NYC on the associate base alone.
Hey dude i was a bit delusional before starting this job and literally thought i would be living in luxury sky scraper with a G wagon paid in cash by age 25. $200k isnt bad and is actually really good but compared to what I thought I'll be making at that age its a fall back to planet earth.
It's not enough to raise a family on in nyc without feeling stressed all the time. Trust me I know.
Look at rent and housing for 3 bedrooms right now.
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