A2A associate here, ~4 years in Sponsors and LevFin, trying to figure out next steps. Not interested in the traditional buyside path (PE, HF, private credit), and obviously having skipped the PE recruiting window as an analyst, the standard playbook doesn’t really apply anyway. Would appreciate hearing from people who went a different direction.
A few things I’m wrestling with:
FP&A seems like the default “corporate” answer but everything I hear makes it sound extremely repetitive — monthly close, variance analysis, rinse and repeat. Corp dev / strategy roles sound more interesting, but coming from LevFin my work has been pretty process-driven and mechanical, not exactly “strategic thinking” reps. Curious if anyone made that jump and how you positioned it, or whether teams discount LevFin backgrounds vs M&A/coverage.
For those who left for something non-traditional (corp dev, strategy, startups, fintech, whatever) - what options did you actually consider, and how did you figure out where you’d land? Did you know what you wanted going in or did it become clear through the process?
Also, what were your actual recruiting channels? LinkedIn and job boards only show what’s posted, and headhunters are really only geared towards buyside recruiting. Was it cold outreach, alumni, former clients, something else?
Appreciate any perspective, especially from people who left at the associate level rather than as an analyst.
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Exited MM M&A to strategy at a high growth CPG and I love it. Strategic finance roles seem to open up when a company first gets institutional capital to assist with make the business more official. When recruiting, I would recommend emphasizing your familiarity with dealing with private equity and excel/ppt
I interned in FP&A in CPG but am in IB now FT and really liked CPG as an industry. I was always hoping to find some way back after IB but was under the impression these companies do not have strategic finance usually (always see it at tech companies usually). When you say CPG, do you mean F500 companies with huge portfolios or more one-dimensional companies like Alo, Allbirds, etc.
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