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April 30, 2024
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Just get a decent amount of experience in the industry and make sure you have your modeling down. The good thing about corp banking is that the majority if not all of your deals are live. Depending on the risk profile of your bank and the industry your in- the deals can be pretty exotic...this makes it harder to distinguish between you and an IBD analyst. Honestly shouldn't be too hard to make the jump, just network and know your ish.
Appreciate the advice jdrdeer
I currently work in CD/CS at a F100 company in a group of ~15 ppl. Our entire corporate strategy side is from McK/BCG and CD side are from Top i-banks/CD groups in same industry....couple thoughts for you.
Unless you are able to land an FLDP offer that is a feeder ground for CD/CS (re: Raytheon), I would not lateral to a company in the same industry with hopes of working your way into the CD/CS department. The majority of these groups are smaller and selectively hire IB/Consultant type backgrounds
I don't know how much work experience you currently have, but I would suggest trying to make the transition sooner rather than later. The majority of the associate, sr. associate hires I have seen or heard about in my group in the past almost exclusively come from Top MBA programs (Wharton/Tuck/Booth etc). I think you have a pretty good shot at landing a role in the same industry as an analyst, however at the associate level it may be more difficult. Keep in mind this is my experience at a much larger company, you may have luck at smaller companies that have less structured recruiting and need to backfill a spot quickly.
Part of it is prestige, the other is the lack of any formal training program in corp. dev departments. For example, I interned at a Corp Dev F500, the VP and Head of Corp Dev wanted me back, but the SVP told me to go to IB. I asked why I couldn't just take a jr. analyst role and learn under them and he essentially told me that no one has the time to teach me what is needed to be successful at high level corp. dev. I am currently working still to lateral to a larger company for Corp Dev, but it is a tough process, and even tougher if you try to do it internally.
I have found that the most likely path to corp. dev internally is to work on an FP&A team and continually ask to be staffed on corp dev projects as research/internal data help. I have heard and seen people get into a SME (subject matter expert) role that works along side FP&A and Corp Dev, and eventually that can turn into a full time CD role in a few years. Not easy, not fun, but it is a possible path.
CD at a large company is a great buy side experience especially when IPO or secondary markets are down. Being a preferred exit opportunity, you get to network with leading PE and VCs, and you get awareness of the best deals to be done in your industry. We recruit from top ibanks/ and good VCs who have people skilled to advise senior management objectively on such transactions. A typical marketing or corp finance job doesn't prepare you for the level of sr. mgmt exposure you get in CD, nor does it help you build relationships strong enough to close transactions with other companies and service providers. I'd say top skills for CD are communication, financial modeling, and creative structuring. However, downside is that you rarely get to profit with successful deals, you get the same bonus as the marketing guys no matter how good the deal was, and your bankers get back into their BMWs, while you get into your Toyota at the end of the day, Also, if you want to transition to financial services later on, buy side folks tend to think of CD as dumb money since companies invest "strategically," resulting in 90% of all M&A to destroy SH value.
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