Turning down a Master’s to join a leading Italian firm – seeking advice
Hello everyone,
I’m currently in the final year of my undergraduate degree at a non-target university in Rome.
I’ve built a strong academic profile – high GPA, honours student, merit-based scholarship – but I don’t have any serious internship experience so far and also eligible for a scholarship up to 50k to attend a master.
From September, I’m supposed to start a Master’s program at the same university. However, I’ve recently secured a solid opportunity to join the Corporate Development team of a top-tier Italian company – think Ferrari or Luxottica, but slightly smaller (~€4B in revenue) and likely the global leader in its niche.
To pursue this opportunity, I’d need to pause my Master’s and relocate to another city.
Right now, without this experience, I believe my best shot would be a Corporate Finance or Audit role at a Big 4.
Long-term, I’d like to attend a 1-year Master’s program in the UK (e.g. LSE, LBS, etc.) and break into M&A or investment roles.
What do you think is the best move for me at this stage?
Thanks in advance for your insights!
Ciao! Take the corporate opportunity and don't look back. Frankly, a Master's can be useful but only to bolster your profile if you don't have a job lined up. This role will give you tangible experience which you can 1) leverage to do an MBA in 3-5 years or 2) potentially be lucky enough to have your company pay for a graduate degree. Never choose further education if you have a robust job lined up. You can always go back to studies, these roles rarely come by.
Very grateful for the advice!
Right now, I’m leaning toward applying next year (after gaining solid experience from the job) to LBS MFA or LSE MSc Finance, with the goal of transitioning into an IB role in the near future.
Going into Corporate Development is definitely the most rational choice at this stage.
Ciao e grazie ancora!
If you want to play the long-game, I'd take the CD role and stay there for 3-5 years the. apply to MBAs. If you still want to do IB by then, you can recruit for post-MBA IB roles. This way you'll 1) still be able to go into IB, 2) have the insights of what CD / CF looks like in-house which can be useful when managing deals and 3) potentially have built up some contacts you can bring in as clients to which ever bank you end up at.
You’re absolutely right: taking a longer-term view might actually provide more flexibility in the future.
I’ll keep this perspective in mind as I move forward. Thanks again for the insight!
Do CD. Solid foundation. Usually people go from IB to CD after as an exit opp but start off in CD. Do it for 2-3 years and then apply for a MBA. After that you should recruit for summer assoc. roles at IB firms if you wanna do IB or recruit for higher up CD roles.
Thanks for the advice. I’ve made up my mind and I’m definitely going to CD.
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