EXIT OPS: Commercial Lending?

Cornelius:

What do you want to do? I'd suggest you stay and see if you can transfer internally and learn more about the business. Also to clarify the above poster's comment, lending is different than leveraged finance. I assume you are doing auto finance at the Company or another type of equipment/floorplan/capital financing. Going down the path of LBO financing, M&A, etc. will be more challenging. The most transferrable ops will be at more commercial lenders that do the same thing as what you're doing now, asset based lenders, or traditional bank lending. If you want cash flow based lending, target a firm/bank that is much smaller and is providing financing to gain ancillary businesses (I.e. a regional bank that buys participations in a broadly syndicated loan/revolver in order because the company is in their state and they want the working capital/cash management business).

You're still young/junior enough to pursue investment banking/high finance roles so I would take a shotgun approach with industry groups, other corporate finance functions, similar companies, M&A/LevFin groups. Treasury roles are also a good option.

Bingo. We provide floorplan financing as well as real estate loans, RLOC's, and your general working capital loans. I believe i'll be able to transfer into an underwriting role internally in Q1 2016, i'm currently being "groomed" for that position..While I am not opposed to moving to a different commercial lender, I'm interested in underwriting-type roles at boutique investment banks or commercial banking roles and what not. Cash-flow based lending seems much more appealing.

I just don't want to feel pigeonholed in this position if I don't get out of it soon. The experience is good, I'm involved in the negotiations side of the business when it comes to the terms of the transaction and specific language in the legal documents. I'm able to see how everything works, but my function is the documentation.