M&A Analyst position

There is an M&A analyst position at a small boutique that i am interviewing with but the position is more concentrated on sales. What they explained is that they have clients looking to acquire specific types of companies and the analyst is responsible for cold calling companies and trying to find good targets.

what do you guys think about this position? Good? Bad? Waste of time?

12 Comments
 

As an analyst you wouldnt be doing cold calling to potential clients.

Small boutiques I've seen in London are basically SME accountants and do deals for around 100mill.

While thats nothing in the land of investment banks its still substantial enough not to have someone who is wet behind the ears.

Ask them mroe about the job. Not us :-)

 

From my conversations so far with them, its highly focused on cold calling.

To restate my question is this position perceived as good experience and eventually help me land a better job or is it perceived as a sales job with a fancy M&A Analyst title?

I'm answering my own question i know but i want to get you guys' take on it...Thanks

 

M&A analysts don't cold-call companies. They don't even warm-call companies. The only "analysts" I know that do anything resembling cold-calling are exceedingly junior junior people at PWM and/or asset management firms who haven't built their own books of business yet.

Run, Forrest, run. This is not an entree into investment banking.

 

some PE shops like TA Associates and Summit Partners have thier juniors "cold-call" for deals...but I've never heard of junior investment bankers cold-calling for advisory work.

if you have no other options, it's beter than no job at all. it sounds like they don't have many "live" deals and are just "pitching" ideas to their clients the majority of the time. some questions to ask: how many bankers work there? will you be building merger models or just working in powerpoint?

 
nychimp if you have no other options, it's beter than no job at all. it sounds like they don't have many "live" deals and are just "pitching" ideas to their clients the majority of the time. some questions to ask: how many bankers work there? will you be building merger models or just working in powerpoint?

Agree 100%. It should be a good stepping stone into a decent boutique bank. Since you're cold-calling during the day, it should give you time to refine your story / learning accounting & valuation at night.

 

Haha, the boutique I worked at last summer had associates cold-calling small companies and pitching "ideas" to them over the phone. I don't think it's uncommon for very small banks to use their junior people for cold-calling, especially if the MDs don't have too many connections.

However, as Mis Ind said, this is definitely NOT what the analysts at MS M&A and the like are doing.

 

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