Exit Ops after Corporate Strategy

Hi everyone,

Just looking for some advice on a logical path/ goal someone could take after working a year in corporate strategy. My strategy division is within a MM bank for reference.

I'm currently taking a year off from school to work, but will have the opportunity to go back to finish off undergrad and hit up OCR.

I'm open to any suggestions, I just haven't seen many threads from people who started in corporate strategy. Not sure which fields this experience will be looked at approvingly, or with disdain.
Please help!

 

Sounds like a good background to me. ER should be easier, but then there are much less openings. IB is harder, because their concern is that why didn't you recruit for IBD associate during bschool and your bschool is churning a new class of associates each year as we speak.

Either way, telling that convincing story of why you want to IB / ER NOW is most important, but I think opening up doors for ER would be a little easier if you keep trying to reach out to alumni (especially when you are an MBA business schools">M7 MBA graduate), sending them pitches, and doing all the informationals, something will eventually open up. I can't speak to how banks think of people who want to do IB after bschool but didn't recruit during.

I would like to hear what other folks on the forum would say about your situation too though.

 

Thanks. I also felt the ER route would be easier to spin the "why ER" story. Right now, I just want to have a strategic framework in place in terms of the steps I would need to take to make a successful transition before I start networking.

I think I would enjoy IBD more because you're actually delivering tangible results just like how I am currently doing now in my strategy role. I just hope that IBD guys don't have the mind set that if I didn't summer in an IBD role I should not even consider the post-mba lateral option. Would be great to hear from others who were in the same boat.

 

I'll give it a go:

While I am exploring transitioning within the buyside from Corp Dev. to PE, a few people I work with are either actively involved in MBA application process or completing a Part-Time MBA. The reasons do vary quite a bit, but tend to be either a career change with an MBA or further establishing your candidacy for other roles within the Company.

I would guess that a good number of Corp. Dev. roles are career track given how suitable it can be for one's lifestyle but people tend to feel that such complacency at this point in this life is unsettling if they are still young enough to further explore other roles before settling down into a certain role or sector.

Authored by: Certified Corporate Development Professional - Director
 

The door is not closed. This forum makes it seem like the only route to the buyside is elite college to BB IB analyst to buyside, but the truth is that the real world is much more muddled (though it is true that your route will be much less traditional than the route described above).

MM IB Associate will offer you opportunities to transition to buyside roles (certainly more so than corp fin), but you should note that these opportunities will be far fewer than those of the analysts' working under you, and you're likely going to have to do a lot of legwork (networking, finding opp's that aren't heavily marketed or geared toward a specific type of candidate, etc.)

 

I'd focus on commercialization of a project. No better way to determine if your strategy skills are good than to implement them directly. Also, at a big company it's not like you have to do everything yourself. You will be given a team and resources...best of both worlds between big corporate and startup. You can claim success if you kill it (while learning on their dime), but you also don't have to fundraise. Granted, I am an entrepreneur, but that seems like an incredible opportunity.

You already have strategy on your resume so if your project fails, you blame senior management, and you can interview for other strats jobs while also being able to claim that you ran a business unit. Nothing but upside there from my perspective.

 
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