I've often read on these forums that if you can't get into IB straight out of school then it may be a good idea to get some experience in M&A at another company, go to B school and then join a BB as an associate.
What companies have M&A training programs? I've been trying to find information on this but can't.
Thanks.
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I think you're referring to corporate development, which is basically internal M&A... most large to decent size companies have a corporate development division which basically looks at targets they can acquire. The division is responsible for growth of the company, externally, and looks for high synergy opportunities.
Analysts working within a division like this get a lot of exposure to the M&A process but its not exactly the same as working for an IB. In corp. dev. you are more concerned with finding targets and doing research on companies and less focued on the transaction itself - the company will use an IB to assist in the transaction part.
There are some similarities with banking however corp. dev. is definitely not the same thing. It is a good option if you cannot land an IB analyst position and if you end up a great company - such as Microsoft, Google, etc. it can be great for B-school or whatever you want to do down the road. Also, its more of a 9-5ish job and not crazy hours.
what above said is correct. However, bear in mind that in order to land those jobs, most large companies( google, oracle, etc) require you to have IB experience first.
Take oracle for example, they almost never hire any IBs to help out because their m&a team is stacked with a bunch of software bankers already.
Thanks for your help. So, if one cannot land a M&A stint (SA and / or FT position), what are the best options pre-MBA that will look good for M&A Associate at a BB?
I did allot of research regarding Corp dev and from what I gathered, very very few hire people without ib or mbb experience ... The corporate development teams at most firms are fairly small...... For more information regarding this, google "deloitte and the m&a playbook-" they released a good case study.....
Hope this helps
snands are you talking about "Corporate Development 2010: Refining the M&A Playbook "
I would shoot for F500 Corp fin rotation programs. GE has a stellar one and you usually get exposure to lots of the company in a short amount of time.
Are there any other good finance rotation programmes?
Look at every F500 companies and you will see a lot. I think P&G might have one?
I think if you really want to look good for recruiting though, either try boutique ibanks or valuation firms.
However, those firms usually won't get you the best biz schools.
Ok, thanks :).
also with Ibanking experience, how do you get into corporate development? Is it largely through headhunters and networking? or something formal
you don't necessarily need ibanking experience for corp dev. although many more senior people in the group will have it - there are many firms, lower part of F500 and outside of the F500 that hire analyst that have some sort of finance experience and know how to model with Excel, also many financial rotational programs at F500 companies, I know Lockheed Martin has it, lets analysts do a rotation in the M&A group
going from ibanking to corp dev - keep an eye open to positions online, you usually will have to go through a headhunter, just keep in mind that these groups are generally small. I do know that many people get their MBA and then go into corp dev
How would one go about getting into corp dev after completing a top F500 financial rotational program? Is finishing the program and pushing for a spot within that F500 the only way? How do you make the move to another corporation's corp dev group?
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