Experienced PE Investor, Getting Rejected Across the Board for CorpDev/Fin/Strat
Would love to get the opinion of experienced folks in here, as I'm having a bit of an existential crisis.
I left my PE role several months ago - long story short, I hated the firm. Culture, organizational hierarchy, stuffiness, management styles...it was all the worst platform I've ever had the displeasure of spending my time in, and to add salt to the wound, I left a pretty stellar role prior to it based on lies & promises that never materialized over the year I was with them. It was a career hiccup, that I solved by lasting a year & leaving after my bonus with the goal of finding my long-term home. What's done is done, and I don't regret my decision to give it a shot.
However, as part of my pivot these last few months, I've been aggressively looking into finally jumping ship from PE and entering the Corp world for a bit - getting hands dirty in ops, putting M&A experience to work, helping w/financing rounds, directing broader strategy through best practices I've implemented in port cos, managing the internal ops model, etc. All aspects I love of the job, paired with strong culture, good comp, equity, and...dare I say it....happiness or fulfillment? Maybe eventually holding a CFO role at scaling platforms.
Anyways, I've been applying on LI to Director level roles, Head of Finance, VP Corp Dev...and despite my experience of 8 years (most recently a VP), I am getting rejected & ghosted 100% of the time. I haven't gotten one interview in these types of roles, and I am beginning to worry. I know my skillset can be hugely valuable to a growing tech business, from financial analysis through operational strategy, but...it doesn't seem to be working....
The long term path always had CorpDev style positions as a potential pivot with immense upside under the right platform...however despite what I thought was a pretty great resume (IB > PE > VC > PE), I can't seem to land a single interview in the industries I've touched the last 8 years (tech).
Is this because it's a bit of a wonky hiring market right now? Or did I grossly overestimate what my experience would be worth in this world?
Feeling pretty uncertain about everything right now.
I work in tech corp dev at a F50 and based on conversations I have had with prospective market entrants as well as those at other corp dev shops the market is tight and opportunities are sparse with 100s of applicants flooding postings within hours. Chin up - it’s 100% market driven.
I have about the same years of experience as you - ignore my title - and my experience cold applying has been largely the same but for more strategy oriented jobs. The market is tough. Making the situation more frustrating is that there are a ton of fake job openings for marketing purposes and ones that are more legitimate but with companies having no intention of filling roles for a few months. I confirmed the latter case with some friends at other companies who are using this tactic.
Have you been working with recruiters/headhunters? A lot of roles at the level you're looking for (i) simply aren't posted online (ii) online apps are a black hole because everyone and a bajillion bots under the sun are throwing in apps, qualified or not, and just require an "in" with the recruiter running the search. There are tons of small exec search type firms you should reach out to and try to build relationships with - the search process is really with them in a sense, not the companies.
The market has been kind of meh recently, yes. But it's not dead, far as I can tell.
I doubt your resume/experience is really the issue here. On paper it should be good enough to get you some traction. One issue potentially is overselling operational experience when coming from PE, though. I will say 4 roles in 8 years is at least mildly concerning (to use a gen Z term I recently learned, it's a beige flag). But again, something that becomes a point of conversation/explaining when you're actually talking to real people, not a reason to just write off your resume.
To answer the recruiter front, I have not really been working with anyone - but that has been a bit more of a function of my network / headhunter relations being mostly buyside focused. I will dig around these forums for recs, but any off the top of your head that tend to be extra helpful for folks like myself? Seeing 500-1000 applicants on these LI drops are not reassuring.
On the resume front, I totally see & anticipated the "beige flag" with this last departure. On the buyside, I'm usually hedged against the fact that almost everyone does 2 years IB and leaves, followed by 2-3 years of an Associate gig at some PE before leaving again - so it has never really hurt me. This last mulligan event though has certainly made the observation require an explanation though, so I get it. I'm hoping that it's not a death blow - I had such an amazing opportunity on paper that I don't regret that decision, but now it makes things a bit harder not just have 3 roles instead of 4. But it is what it is.
Appreciate the insight!
Charles Aris and Korn Ferry are the big names that understand the market and do more senior level retained search. But there's ton of very small boutiques that just have relationships/coverage with PE firms, certain geographic areas, industries, etc. that for lack of better phrasing you need to mine/sift.
Yeah, I'm sympathetic to your situation. One job "not working out" just ends up throwing off the whole cadence of your resume. Again, something you can explain if you can get a real person to talk to.
I would go at it the other way around - network your ass off instead of responding to job offers.
Some of these offers may be published for internal policy reasons but they already have a preferred candidate in place.
As said above, a lot of these jobs get filled hy network, and headhunters (internal or external).
So I would:
These positions are a bit more scarce and off the traditional path. But they exist.
This is an example of overreaching and overvaluing your years of experience. No major company is going to make a you a VP or head of anything. At this point you'd transition over as a senior manager or junior-ish director.
The exit ops outside of IB and PE are actually pretty limited once you're into your VP years. People in these fields don’t have experience running sizable teams or any nitty gritty ops experience.
Maybe I'm using VP interchangeable with Director; in investing roles, VP < Director on the seniority totem pole and frankly I'm basing this search on folks in my network who have left the hamster wheel to join tech companies across corp dev / strategy over the past couple years.
Those that left after 2 years in banking, or maybe 2 + 2 in IB & PE usually went into manager or vp roles, while those I've seen more recently tend to have more senior positions. This has been confirmed by the very small number of headhunters I've talked to so far who guided me to VP/Director at this point (essentially post-MBA tier). I imagine its hugely variable as well depending on a F50 vs a F1000 or growing start-up Series C and below.
Believe it is market driven so I wouldn't beat yourself up about it. I would focus more on headhunters/recruiters (internal and external) as that will yield higher hit rates than just applying on LinkedIn.
That said, it is somewhat disheartening to hear this as it appears that working in PE and being able to go do whatever you want afterwards (Corp Dev/strat/etc.) is somewhat of a façade.
Would be great to hear from others who have made the jump from PE to something that isn't back to IB, or a HF/VC.
It’s just a matters of skills.
IB skills are not really transferrable outside of corpdev or BD, and unless you were already very senior in IB, managing relationships with C-levels, no one will give you a meaningful management responsibility.
Corporates are full of people with functional expertise and a narrow scope with very few managers - and most of these managers have functional expertise.
There is just very little functional expertise in IB, and little that qualifies you to manage people that don’t want to work like bankers.
Hoping that managing a team of juniors on deal execution & portfolio ops lends itself a bit more to the IB skillset, but we'll see!
Fingers crossed as it's taken me many years to finally be comfortable leaving the buyside, and I hope it wasn't all for nothing.
Like someone else said, when hiring for a role this senior the individual needs to know how to manage a team properly. It's not about making sure stuff is aligned or boot licking the MD. It's about actually being good at the job.
Also with 8 YOE, no big company will make you a VP of anything. Not sure where this notion of being a VP in banking is some godsend to corporate roles. In the end, it's the equivalent to a manager (maybe low level director) at a company.
Very simply, no one is gonna work 80 hours a week that bankers and PE people are accustomed too. Many VP bankers severely overlook this aspect when jumping too corporate roles and thinking that they are "entitled" to top jobs because they spent 6 years in banking/PE.
Terminology. In a corporate VP is above director.
At my company you’ll find manager > associate director > senior director > executive director > vp > svp > evp > ceo
There is about 10 EVPs for the whole company (s&p50)
Svp maybe 20-30
VP maybe 60-100 - finance is a subset of that
So effectively you’re looking for a director role - that should be doable with your experience. There aren’t just that many of these roles so it’s a mix of being connected appropriately & being there at the right time.
That makes sense, thanks for the clarification. FWIW, there have been 5-10 LI drops I've done recently asking for 10+ years experience as a Director which has kind of surprised me, but you're pattern makes sense.
I'm guessing my colleagues who left earlier than me have just been promoted internally at a faster pace given worth ethic / etc. vs. having a blanket "in" just because of title coming in from buyside. I'm eager to make the pivot, so title isn't all that important to me, but I'm also looking at some very large pay cuts with the transition, so just making sure I dot my i's.
It's been a bummer feeling so qualified for some of these roles - not even as a inflation of import, just sheer execution experience etc. - but having them be <$150k comp and not even getting a first round interview. General consensus in here seems to be network more, less LI drops, and work with recruiters. Any recs on that front for Corp Dev / Finance headhunters you've worked with?
I recognize this isn’t the most helpful info, just giving a bit of my perspective as someone who left PE as an associate. Not the same, but maybe some transferable knowledge.
Cold apps are definitely tough, but I sent a lot of them as someone whose network was still largely in IB/PE. It’s definitely possible to get interviews and even offers from these, but I would note that you likely have to send a lot more apps that you think. At a certain point, I had fired off close to 200 applications for any position under the sun, and I’d say I did pretty well in hearing back from ~10 of them. I hate cover letters, but every now and then I feel inspired to write one if it’s a really cool gig. Anecdotally, it does seem to help marginally over no letter.
I did reach out to some recruiters as well. Henkel, Amity, and Oxbridge all do some work in corp dev, strategy, FP&A, etc. Outside of that, I found Selby Jennings and GoBuyside to actually have some decent leads. Some smaller names I received emails from include Trouvex and Pinnacle FES.
I think there’s generally just a higher number of FP&A jobs on LinkedIn, which were the majority of interviews I got. I did have some traction with corp dev roles, but strategy / biz ops roles typically looked for more consulting backgrounds so those were harder to come by. I did interview for a few jobs that were a bit of a title downgrade, so maybe consider that as well. I’ve seen quite a few people negotiate on title after accepting an offer. Finally, I found startups to be a bit of an easier hit than larger corporates, and PE-backed portcos may be a little more appreciative of your experience. All that said, there certainly are hiring managers that would rather hire someone of direct corp dev experience over banking/investing experience. I spoke with a couple and realized it wasn’t a fit.
FWIW, a lot of people I interviewed with come from similar backgrounds as yours, so I definitely don’t think the experience is the problem. The market isn’t the greatest, but it’s also not dead. My general advice would be to maybe cast a wider net if possible, try to get referrals through your network, and just to keep going. I do agree with you that it isn’t as easy as it’s made out to be — hell my PE recruitment was probably easier — but you’ll certainly find something.
All super helpful insight; its seeming like I'm just not casting a wide enough net at this point. I'm still open to investor roles as well at the moment, just as a function of my experience & the small possibility every aspect of my criteria is met, so that could also be why I haven't fully jumped in 100% yet.
To build on what others have said, it can be hard to find corporates that really values the skillsets and potential that someone with your background brings. Thinking about people in my network that made a similar move, the ones that were successful in leveraging their background generally went to PE portcos or a private tech companies rather than large corporates. In almost all cases, there's was some form of connections (ie. they went to a portco of their previous fund or to a tech firm they funded, etc) so leveraging network was really crucial. Those opportunities can both potentially provide rapid advancement and a large payout through options and the likes. For a large corporate, there's a lot of issues that may work against you. Comp and advancement expectations are likely to be out of line with salary range and actual potential for advancement. As mentioned above, large corporates are pyramids with a limited number of roles at the top and it can take a lot of time and effort to make it there. Plus, corp dev tend to be thought of as a support function which often doesn't jive with how PE professionals view themselves / their contributions.
My advice, network, network and network some more, that's how you are going to find that company that will value your background and set you on a path that fits your abilities. I know quite a few people that left PE and the VP / Director / Principal level and were made CFO within a few years so it's definitely doable, you just have to find the kind of place where that will be an option.
Yea it really appears to be a function of networking for this pivot - which should seem obvious in hindsight, like any lateral - but I think that I anticipated more opportunity in general than what I've gotten which has shaken me up a bit. A handful of large corporates have straight up ignored my direct outreach, and I can see that most applicants it does appear are coming from prior CorpDev/Finance roles itself. The CorpDev roles in blue chip public co's especially, just full on ignored or looking for post-MBAs it seems like. And things like Head of Finance, even for earlier stage, funded "start-ups" would appear to choose someone with prior corporate experience or accounting history (FP&A roles are NOT what I'm looking for, at all). Even with "warm" leads into these "Head of" or VP/Dir roles, I am getting ignored or selected out over other candidates...which is so contrary to everything I thought I knew leading up to this.
I think a strong next step, to your point, would be to reach out to folks in my network & prior firms and start digging into PortCos for sure. It is a bit of a double edged sword because, for better or for worse, I'm still staying open to the right fit in a investor seat in tandem with this search (i.e. one that fits my criteria unlike the role I left)...the pendulum has just shifted more towards this world finally.
Starting to really question if leaving my last firm was the right call, but no point in regret at this point. It was clearly not a long term fit, I was incredibly unhappy, and felt confident in the decision. If a year passes and I'm still not lined up....yea, we can start talking regret lol.
As someone who found roles this year and last year around the same time it's definitely market driven. My background is mostly corpdev / IB, but last year, I probably got 50% of interviews I applied for while this year it's maybe closer to 10-15%. Part of it is companies aren't hiring like they were last year, but for me I was also specifically applying to remote roles which are in lower supply now than last year due to RTO policies. Similarly it seems like compensation across the board is on par if not lower compared to last year although this is just from what I've generally been seeing.
It's tough, but keep applying. At the end of the day you just need one offer. I do feel though that larger, more typical corporate teams aren't going to value your experience as much as PE backed firms. They'll probably see you closer to a Senior Manager / Director role unless it's a corpdev specific role. In addition, it also highly depends on the hiring manager / team. For example, I've had good traction with teams who came from a professional services background (IB / consulting), but have gotten blocked by teams with generally older members who have been stuck in middle management or wanted to check the box on specific items (e.g., knowing how to use a specific planning software, having people management experience of x amount of direct reports, etc.). Also, for what it's worth I've found lately that more roles want you to have actual direct experience. For example, there was a SaaS role I was applying for where having IB, corpdev, etc. experience was a requirement, but the hiring manager basically turned down anyone coming directly from those backgrounds and wanted someone to have true FP&A experience already.
Keep your head up. It may take a while, but you'll get something.
Really, really reassuring. Appreciate that! I've noticed the same at the larger company opportunities recently (things like CorpDev at Rockwell or Pure Storage, where despite the folks looking at my LI, just ignored my messages/apps completely) - but I'm having trouble really segmenting this early because I'm also getting rejected across the board at Series A-D platforms as well lol. Just not a single interview yet which is such a pivot from my years of lateraling on the buyside prior to this.
Hoping it doesn't take a year or more, maybe I shouldn't have left my last role, but we're here so fingers crossed. Only been a few months at this point but I think I just wasn't prepared for this degree of rejection. Going to hit the networking aspect much heavier going forward for sure & hope things pick up more as we approach end of the year.
Yep good luck and keep your head up!
Also one other point I forgot to mention is idk where you’re located, but I was dinged at a lot of places just due to where I was working out of despite everything else matching. Sometimes it was because of legal reasons others was due to time zone differences.
This is a very normal experience. Most high finance careers stall or end at the VP adjacent level. MBA’s are unpopular for many reasons but offer a good hedge against this outcome. They provide a lifelong network and cachet in many firm cultures or corporates that is often needed to attain rank. If possible, it might make sense to enroll in a good EMBA program while you wait things out.
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