Hello All, I just left investment banking after four years at a boutique bank in special situations. I thought I might give back to this forum which has been a tremendous source of resources and advice over the last six years of my life. I have about three weeks off until I begin my new position and am making myself available to answer any questions until Thursday.
A brief description of my background:
I went to a non-target university in the northeast (top 50) which had a strong business program. I would not call our school a feeder school, but we had a good number of students break into IB. Prior to joining banking, I worked in internal audit at a large accounting firm, which I then, almost immediately, internally transferred to their valuations group. After spending two years at the firm, I moved on to investment banking at a middle-market boutique bank in the west coast. I was industry agnostic but primarily dealt with companies in special situations about 75% of the time. During my time at my firm, I got the opportunity to work with our restructuring consulting team on some engagements (i.e. identical to Alvarez, SierraConstellation, etc.). In aggregate, I spent about a year working with this team on on-site client engagements providing CRO advisory services and liquidity management. My new position is a finance/strategy position at a CPG company. My primary reason for leaving banking revolved around the lifestyle and short-term commitment to projects. I was seeking a position that allowed me to focus 100% of my energy on advancing the goals of one company instead of five other companies spread across different industries. Given my mix of investment banking and brief consulting experience, I found the mix of finance and strategy responsibilities of the new position to be appealing. -XSX
1) If you could start over would you have done the same (i.e. lateraling into IB after your time in internal auditing)? Yes, I would not take back my investment banking experience. I learned so much during my four years in IB.
3) Did you feel like your time in IB actually help you acquire the analytical skills you wanted? Yes. I primarily liked the fact that I focused on special situations. Working in special sits really helped me dig deep into companies to determine positioning. This caused me to really understand company business models and what caused those companies to experience financial/operational difficulties.
4) Looking forward, are you considering an MBA? Other than the CPA are you considering (or have already gotten) getting any other certificates? I am not considering an MBA. I do not have a CPA. I did pass all levels of the CFA, which I thought was an amazing learning experience.
-XSX