How I made the leap from Operations to Corp Dev

Monkeys, I figured I would pay my respects to this forum by thanking everyone for their insight, and knowledge; as well as their willingness to share both. Just for some context, I played lacrosse at an unheard of non-target that was essentially a community college. I graduated with a 3.9, and didn't have relevant internship experience. After graduation I took a job in Derivative Ops at a shop in Charlotte and hated every minute of it. Fast forward 18 months, and I made the jump from BO to F600 Corp Strategy/Dev (yet to close a deal this year, but discussions are in play). With the way everything played out, I couldn't be happier.

Somehow I managed to land this job by:

  1. Utilizing this Forum- don't take this site for granted, there are some people in the finance community willing to help people attempting to break into this industry

  2. Consistently Networking- Just like they say in here, I probably met with > 60 for coffee, which resulted in about a dozen FO final interviews (but no offers)

  3. Reaching out to old friends- Don't think that old connections are obsolete

  4. Calling Recruiters

  5. Constantly Strive for Education - Use Wall street prep; take classes at your work; learn excel shortcuts; do as much as you can to make yourself standout in an interview

  6. Crush you current job- The work you do currently is what you'll use as a talking point in an interview. My OPs manager HATED me, but couldn't deny my thirst for more work.

If anyone has any questions, ask away!

 

Very inspiring, congratulations! I am currently an FP&A Analyst (1st year) in a F200 tech firm, and working in strategy/corp dev is an eventual goal of mine. Seeing as how most strat/corp dev units hire directly from IB and big 3 consulting firms, how do you think I can break in? I am definitely planning to pursue my MBA down the line, but would it be possible to go from MBA directly to strategy/corp dev and skip consulting/IB?

Thanks!

 

So, the way things worked at this group ended really well in my favor. Within the first two months being here they repositioned our group within strategy, and then last week announced that we will start get involved in M&A work. Essentially I jumped two steps purely out of luck.

That being said, I really think you can pitch the FP&A work into strategy quite easily. You're seeing the business from an operational perspective, looking at the numbers, and guiding the business verticals on how to reach their goals (implementing technology, delaying hiring, etc). All of these are problems strategy usually has to deal with. I'm assuming you have a lot of exposure to the business side you're covering?

 

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