PE vs. Corporate M&A
Could use some life advice here. Currently at MBB in London at the pre-Engagement Manager level. Was recruiting for PE (UMM/MF) as I'm bored and want a new environment. I have interviews with a number of good funds (think Cinven to Carlyle type funds) lined up but not looking forward to the hours. A Corporate M&A opportunity came up and I thought it'd be good practice so went for it. They now offer me a position ~2-3 years more senior than I am for ~£100k base + 10-20% (?) bonus. My original plan was UMM/MF PE (~£85k base + 100% bonus) and then move to a hedge fund or go into corporate.
Hours at the corporate will be much easier and can likely pivot to P&L responsibility after a few years. It does however likely close off the PE track for good. I don't love PE but want an intellectually challenging job with relatively sustainable hours and decent money, so would aim to move to a HF in 1-2 years. The Corporate M&A job already satisfies what I'd want to make and really don't need much more for the next few years.
Any thoughts?
@APAE" @CompBanker" @Rover-S"
Salary range of corporate M&A is sort of within the range for this type of job (not sure how you measure the seniority of the corporate role as your MBB job will have been much more intense/steeper learning curve than any corporate job would have been/given).
What job you should take I can't decide for you. I do believe that Cinven/Carlyle do not close the door to corporate M&A afterwards while the otherway around is unusual as you pointed out as well.
Thanks, helpful. Do you know where a PE associate would slot into a Corporate M&A group post their 2-3 years? Is it a useful skillset for Corporate M&A or too different?
Tenure was measured as my current tenure vs. a consultants' target tenure for the job - my future would-be colleagues with same role were hired after ~5-6 years at their firm vs. my 3 years, although they didn't do MBB but one notch down - so not equivalent but still relatively comparable.
Very much depends if the corporate M&A deparment is die-hard M&A or more corp development including strategy. If it's the firt, you will find a difficult to make a difference probably. Most corporates that have such departments will have capable regional/product managers that understand WHY they want to buy another company. The M&A department than helps them with valuation/due diligence/negotiations/etc.
How old are you? Any significant family responsibilities? How senior/unique is the Corp Dev job?
In my opinion if you're young enough and have enough gas in the tank to grind for another year or two in PE, it's worth going that route. PE at a big name shop will easily allow you to slot into a corporate role in a few years if that's what you want to do. It will also open up other opportunities at HFs if that's what you want to do. Plus you'll never have any what/if types of questions later in your career.
The corporate role will obvsioly be a lifestyle move, not to say it won't be interesting, but it will most likely limit you from going back to a PE/HF role for a while.
If the Corp Dev job was very unique such that, you're going in as a senior role (Senior Manager or Director) then maybe it's worth considering more strongly, or if you just want better balance in your life, there's nothing wrong with not wanting to do PE if you're already pretty burnt out.
Regarding level-ing from PE to Corporate. I feel like I generally see the 2+2 (2 IB/MBB, 2 PE) folks slot in nicely as Corp Dev Managers, but the Corp Dev hierarchy kind of depends on the company.
Very helpful, thank you. I think you nail the problem on the head. This would be for a Corp Dev manager role; below the director, but no one above it in that function. This is effectively also directly leading to my doubt. Practically, I'm afraid that if I decide in 2-3 years PE isn't it and I can't move to a HF/decide don't want to do finance anymore, I haven't really made any significant progress while going through the relatively painful PE path. What are your thoughts on that?
Ehh, my opinion is that Corp Dev Manager isn't that special, assuming you've done 2 years of banking? It's maybe a mini acceleration on the promotion, but I've also seen firms take people on as Corp Dev managers right out of banking before. At some places Corp Dev manager is the most entry level Corp Dev role on a team, so it's basically just like an Associate role anyways.
With that being said, if you for sure you know that you don't want the lifestyle that comes with PE/HF, Corp Dev can be a great career, so I'm not knocking it, but it will limit exit options after.
The exit options it will open up, are more corporate roles, most likely into the business units in a finance/product/ops type of role. Depending on the company, they can be very supportive or unsupportive of that move, but most people that go from finance --> Corp Dev are usually using Corp Dev as a means to try and work their way into an industry role.
Again it kind of comes down to, how ready are you to jump off the finance train? I've seen folks who go into Corp Dev after a year or two, but years later are heads of strategy or COOs at places and they love it, but they would admit that they would have a tough time as a Hedge Fund analyst.
It all starts to distill down into, what do you want out of life, what do you want to do, how do you want to live, etc.
With all that being said, and as I said before, if you have a high degree of confidence you can line up a top MM/UMM/MF PE offer, I'd try and grind that out for at least one year, commit yourself to learning for a year, make good money, just know that it's going to be a tough year and then give yourself the out to quit immediately if you hate it. It seems like you're curious enough about PE/HF that's it's worth doing it.
Corp Dev is best to move into when you're more senior. If you move as an associate, your progression will be very slow and you'll see EMs and VPs get slotted above you year after year.
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