Curveball: M&A to LevFin / RX
Summary: European background (language, education, experience); LDN based in a known generalist M&A team (BB) looking to move to LevFin / RX; currently Analyst 3. How difficult would the move be? Came to the current position as a lateral and moves / secondments are not really encouraged where I work.
Background / motivation: wish to expand knowledge of credit / debt. Problem with working on sponsor deals is that knowledge of debt / capital structure does not really go much beyond cap structure for an LBO (i.e. haven’t really looked at credit agreements much, seniority / priority models with covent modelling etc.)
Long term: Interested in special sits.
ignore the slightly catchy title for the thread…..
Bump. Interested.
Anyone? Pointers need not be EU centric. Most old threads I have seen have been about going from LevFin / RX to M&A etc. Haven’t seen any specific details about a move in the other direction.
In general, I imagine these moves are difficult but not impossible. Just keep at it and I am sure someone will bite eventually. Every group on the street needs people and you are lucky you already have IB experience
Thanks! I think it’s more about not having done LevFin / RX and being an An3. Are there any particular difficulties I will need to be mindful of? I am thinking in terms of technical prowess or lack thereof. Thanks!
Bump. Any takers? Happy to have general / US-based anecdotal advice. Thanks!
Anyone? As a girl IBer, would add my $0.02 to all the threads about dating smart / IB girls if someone purrrlease responds ;)
Any anecdotes of people moving from M&A to LevFin or RX as experienced analysts would be really appreciated - thanks!
You are considering rewarding us for answering your question by telling us how to date a smart IB girl? Do you really think any of these WSO kids have game in the slightest? lmaoooo
Bumpity bumpity bump.
Bump
I made the jump from post-coverage ib non prestigious buyside role to pjt/hl/evr rx. No MBA. My thought is you must reorient your cv around credit. If you have any rx experience show it, but you should have credit related tasks to speak about coming from m&a since every deal needs a financing package. Include as many levfin/credit buzzwords as you can (within reason). Also show on your cv how you've been proactively learning about rx, whether through blogs, books, conversations, etc. Your cv should scream credit interest.
Really helpful, thanks! Any other specific colour on how you went about it? Also, were you in US or EUR? I am based in LDN.
My role is in ldn. After refining my cv I shot it off to as many banks and recruiters as possible. Worth doing, doesn't take alot of time, but didn't bear any fruit for me. I also sent a substantial number of cold contacts on LinkedIn to analysts and associates at shops I wanted to be at. When you send a connection request you can include a small 300 character message for free. I call it going fishing and have found several previous jobs this way. In this instance I probably sent 40-50 requests of which 5-10 responded. One of those individuals liked me after chatting on the phone and shared my cv. Got a first round within a few hours which ultimately turned into an offer. Moral of the story is first carefully prepare your cv and story (the story was harder to prep than my cv since I have jumped around a bit). Then you must machine gun your cv through as many channels to your desired firms as humanly possible.
I don't see why this would be a challenge really. You might have to repeat your A3 year though. Just need a very solid understanding of the technicals.
Thanks. Curious, why the repeat? Don’t MBAs (no prior IB experience) go straight in?
Levfin groups almost exclusively don’t hire MBAs, at least this is the case at my bank. It’s extremely difficult to start as a functional VP or associate without any credit background. The way you think about businesses needs to be re wired
RX is a lot different than M&A. Going from M&A to RX is completely different than, say, going from Consumer to Industrials as an Analyst where the work is similar. So there's an entirely different skillset to learn. They'll want you to repeat a year as an Analyst so that you have the opportunity to get up to speed and learn that skillset, and so that they can evaluate you, before promoting you to a more senior role.
Spot on. I could have easily broken into an as1 role in coverage or even m&a with my experience but had to take an a3 position to break into a strong rx shop. I think it's worth it since most as1 have MBAs and I could get promoted without one in a year
You work at M&A at a top BB. You’re only an analyst. And you want to lateral to lev fin or Rx?
Sounds impossible man.
Don’t waste your time applying to open roles for analyst roles in those areas. /sarcasm
Yes but Analyst 3 so I am a bit worried if that boat may have sailed.
Deleniti sint inventore modi inventore incidunt nostrum nisi. Sunt nulla sint et incidunt.
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