Strategy to IB
Good day everyone,
I'm a senior in undergrad who missed the boat for IB recruiting, I'm considering an internship offer in strategy and would like to have a few minutes of your time.
My long-term goal would be PE, I'd like to know if this internship experience would be valuable in helping me break-in to IB after school (open to b-school -> IB asso -> PE if that's what it takes).
I would be working in the corporate strategy group at a sub $1 billion revenue company in tech/software (with mid to high double digit growth rate). A few thousand employees, not overly acquisitive (4-6 deals total in the past 5 years), might get deal exposure but unlikely.
I have done a few finance internships in the past, not closely related to IB but is enough to prove that I have the technicals down - I was told this seems to be the biggest concern when evaluating IB candidates with strategy/consulting background.
I would love to get your input on:
1. Will corporate strategy experience increase the odds to breaking in after undergrad, and what needs to be done to make it happen
2. If things don't work out, how is corp strat experience perceived by b-school adcom, considering the (small) firm size.
Thanks for reading, any insight and guidance would be highly appreciated!
Corporate strategy is more akin to consulting, and corp dev tends to own any deals. You won't get any modeling reps which is the biggest challenge when lateraling from these roles. Past internships stop mattering once you start FT - doing an 8 week finance internship where you messed around in a practice model is not that helpful when you are trying to lateral as a FT and are competing with people who have a year of true IB modeling/deal experience.
This would be a very solid background for MBA/IB ASO positions - would position you for tech groups in particular from an M7 - but not sure if you want to go down that path
Thanks for commenting.
There isn't a dedicated corp dev group, probably because the firm does so few deals, I guess the corp strat group will work on deals if needed, but yeah I dont expect to get a ton of modeling work there.
I've previously interned at a REPE shop doing acquisitions, had some (not a ton) modeling exposure on actual deals but hated the asset class. Would the move to MM or boutiques be doable in your opinion?
Tech is one of my favorite groups and I'll very likely go to b-school no matter what, for personal reasons, so this is very good to hear, thank you.
What's going on with tech?
Nothing wrong with tech, I meant the MBA path. Some people don't want to spend the $$ and it takes a while (2-3 years working pre-MBA, 2 years of school). If you are really interested in b-school and TMT groups, I think this path makes a ton of sense for you. Recommend taking the GMAT now while you're still in school / in study mode, the score is good for 5 years.
No REPE will not help you in moving to IB. The modeling is completely different and again, intern modeling is just not comparable to the skills developed over a year or more on the job. I think the best case scenario to move to IB from strategy is to stop somewhere in between, and at that point you'd be better off just doing MBA.
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