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April 30, 2024
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I don't think so. They are two very different jobs. In M&A you advise clients from a corporate strategy perspective and it's crucial for you to learn the business of your clients. But in financing, your expertise lies in the financial products.
But honestly I think we shouldn't take M&A advising as something top of the food chain and worship it. Every front office job has its own unique skills set to develop and for the first two years of your career it doesn't really matter whether you were advising or financing because no matter what we put on resume, everybody knows most of the stuff we do is trivial paperwork. If you actually have experience as a team leader/arranger of financing projects, I'd say that's even better than powerpoint in M&A.
Thanks for the response. Though wouldn't you say that the lender providing the financing also needs to learn the business/business model of the company its lending to?
I guess you're right, but TBH even if you don't fully understand the business, you can still help your clients to finance at some level.
If I went back to second year of my career and were given the opportunity to either lead a financing project or doing pitch books and powerpoints in a M&A deal, I would choose the former without hesitation. Leadership is always better than paperwork. And I found the financing side of the business provides better exposure to leadership experience for rookies. So, I think you are in a great place, don't think less of yourself if you can't phrase your experience as M&A.
I was in a similar spot after my internship. The financing was for a major acquisition at the time. So when describing the deal on my resume: "$XXXMM bond financing of Company A's $XXB acquisition of Company B"
Completely agree with the poster above. The experience isn't worse because it wasn't advising; it's more about what you actually did on the deal.
Thanks for the reply. As I go about re-visiting and polishing my resume, would you recommend describing the deal as you did? (i.e. "Company A acquisition of Company B") instead of something along the lines of ("Industrial Company acquisition of a competitor"). I'm also wondering if it's a better idea to use vague/general terms like those instead of actual company names (for a deal that has been publicly announced) just b/c not all interviewers may know those actual companies and what they do (esp. if they're middle market companies)
Sure, if you want to get fucked up during interviews
I definitely wouldn't pitch it as M&A experience. They'll figure out pretty quickly in the interview what your actual experience is and likely won't be happy you misrepresented your experience. Based off your experience on the acquisition finance side, you can certainly discuss your exposure to M&A, but I wouldn't label it as experience.
What exactly is the context? Is this in regards to experience on the resume, cold emails, cover letters, etc.?
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