What are the similarities and differences between Corporate Development and Sell-Side in terms of experience?
There are countless articles regarding the buy side vs. sell side in terms of similarities and differences. What about between corp dev and sell-side? Corp-dev meaning that you work on deals for the company itself and underwrite your own deals and sell-side where you represent clients.
My train of thought so far is the following:
Similarities: -Basically a generalist in terms of deal type (M&A, debt offerings, equity offerings, spin-offs) -Same ebb and flow of a typical deal timeline -Same soft and technical skills needed of a sell-side analyst
Differences: -To others, people may view you as less experienced in handling client engagement
Obviously, I'm a bit biased as I'm currently in corp dev but I would love to hear thoughts.
Corp dev is buyside... It's not client services oriented. Its focus is due diligence. Corp dev, in theory at least, is more comparable to PE than to banking, except as a strategic buyer.