MBA interested in restructuring

I'm not sure how active this group is, but I thought I would introduce myself and ask for advice on breaking into restructuring. This is an area that I am really interested in and have spent the better part of the last 3-4 years learning about the space. I'm in my second year of my MBA and the recruiting environment for finance jobs in general looks to be pretty bare (let alone restructuring). I'm in the University of Michigan and it seems as though many banks have pulled back their recruiting efforts. Unless you are from Wharton, Harvard, NYU or Columbia, it looks to be very tough to get in without the relevant experience.

So right now, do I stick with the on-campus recruiting for corporate finance or focus on my desired goal to work in restructuring? Who is hiring these days anyway?

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Best Response

You have a couple of options. Restructuring is slow right now, mostly because of the refinancing in the high yield market or the "amend and extend" that financially distressed companies undertook to extend their maturities out to 2015-2017. Nevertheless, those who don't have access to these capital markets are facing distress and are becoming insolvent and restructuring, either in court or out of court. MM restructuring is pretty active as a result, bulge restructuring is very slow.

Restructuring firms focus in either or both areas: operational and financial. Operational deals more with the PNL and financial firms focus more on right sizing the BS. Restructuring banks are not hiring as much as those focused on operationla turnarounds (debtor focused), so you should focus your recruiting efforts there. Check out firms like AlixPartners, Alvarez, Huron, FTI, also any of the BIg4 restructuring groups. You should also go for your CIRA certification, that shows interest and will get you up to speed on ch11 regulatory and financial matters. If you want to target banks, I'd focus on the MM sector. Also, if you have an industry background in something relevant (healthcare, manufacturing, high tech, etc) that helps a lot. Generalists don't do well in the MM sector since they add little value to the operational turnaround of a troubled company.

Finally, be sure your modeling skills are strong. Restructuring modeling is a bit diffrent from traditional ibanking modeling, it's far more in depth and detailed, I'd look at taking courees in TTS or WSP to be sure you are strong in that aspect.

Opportunities are out there, you just need to network (leverage your Ross network as much as possible) and show interest in the space and something should materialize. Finally, check out the turnaround/distressed conferences of other top b-schools, lots of great contacts to hit up there; Kellogg, Booth and Wharton all have excellent conferences.

Good Luck.

 
socola2003You should also go for your CIRA certification, that shows interest and will get you up to speed on ch11 regulatory and financial matters.

Is there a Europe based equivalent?

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