Hi everyone - what is a job title that one can reasonably shoot for after 2 years as a PE associate (4 YOE total) in corporate finance, and what is the expected pay?
Thinking of escaping the rat race after my PE stint and pursuing the CFO route at a F500. Thanks!
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You think going to a F500 is escaping the rat race?
Compared to PE/IB I think the lifestyle would be better?
You’re not gonna be a CFO after 4 years of IB/PE - most of them spend years working in corp dev/strat/fin/fp&a/big 4 accounting. The lifestyle isn’t much better either - our CFO was responding to emails during his daughter’s wedding
My question was asking what level and pay I’d come in at. I didn’t say I’d be a CFO after 4 years lol. I said that’s the route I want to pursue
Depending on how mature the company is, anywhere from 160-250K. For startups you’d probably enter as a senior associate/manager and get promoted after a year, slightly longer timeline for F500. The IB/PE skills do not translate that well to corp fin jobs - only way to get good is to go through as many monthly finance cycles as possible which just takes time
Ignore title, went to a F500 corp role after IB with similar goals to what you are describing. Yes, pace is much slower and much more manageable. If you want to be on a promotable track and rise in the ranks, you'll have to work harder than the average person coasting at their current level for the long-term but that is still much less than my IB experience. I would assume 4 YoE would get you a manager titled position at a F500. Might swing a higher title at a smaller company / PE portco / startup if that in itself is valuable to you but F500 will be more rigid. Same with comp - bands will be more rigid at a F500 and there unfortunately won't be much variance in pay within a job grade at a large corporate - i.e., can't expect to be paid 50% more than others with the same title in a corporate setting just due to an IB / PE background. Being pretty selective, I'd imagine $200k all-in would be on the higher end of what I'd expect there. If just maximizing for pay, I'd imagine a smaller company, startup, or portco could offer better comp to get an ex-IB/PE person and especially if there is an equity component, but I think for my longer-term goals, building experience at an established company will lead to better opportunities down the line.
Are you thinking of a corp dev role or more general corporate finance? Corp dev will be much more transferrable from your experience and some companies may offer better pay to get a team full of ex IB / PE people in these groups but not all of them. The long term goal with this role though would be a head of corp dev position - a CFO route will definitely require a more well-rounded person that has some experience across FP&A, accounting, treasury as the other poster mentioned.
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