Q&A: 2nd Year Transaction and Valuation Services Consultant

It's all in the title! I am a relatively recent MBA graduate (May 2019) from a large state university. Currently in my second year in Transaction and Valuation Services at a middle-market accounting firm, which I began part-time while I was still in school. A couple things about me:

  • Finance is my second career. I was a cybersecurity analyst before I decided to change paths and go to business school, so I can possibly offer insight to anyone with an IT or computer science background who's looking to do the same.

  • As a result, I am also a non-traditional professional in this industry. I did not know anything about finance until my late 20s.

  • Almost all of the work I do is with privately-held businesses, which presents some unique situations that you don't encounter with publicly-traded companies.

So, ask me anything.

 

Thanks for doing this-I am assuming you are at EY , PwC etc. I am a 1st year MBA at a T20 (International Student) and interested in recruiting for FT opportunities. Here are my questions.

1) Do are FT MBAs get recruited from the internship pool? 2) What is the FT recruiting timeline? 3) What is the best way to prepare for the process? 4) How important is networking? 5) Any change in hiring plans?

Thank you.

 
Most Helpful

Good questions.

1) Are you asking if FT MBA's are recruited as interns or if FT MBAs who are already interns get recruited to stay on FT after school? (The answer to both questions is yes, so maybe it doesn't matter.) However, I have to qualify the "yes" with the condition that CPAs and accountants are generally preferred over MBAs and CFAs. So to be competitive you need to demonstrate an advanced knowledge of accounting, especially relating to M&A concepts.

2) Interestingly, I landed this position from a cold application on my university's career website and got the offer almost immediately. No networking, coffee dates, or pavement pounding - though I did plenty of that for other positions I was pursuing at the time. I just got lucky, which you will find happens more when your work hard.

3) WSO has covered preparation in detail, and the valuation components of PE and IB are the most applicable in this case.

4) Networking is everything. If you're a FT MBA, you should be using every opportunity available and then some. Even though I got my job as described in my answer to 2, the only reason I saw that particular job posting is because it was forwarded to me by a mentor.

5) Do you mean is the process of hiring going through a transformation? Not that I have seen.

 

Hah! Well the FBI does not have jurisdiction in China or Russia, so even if they know who the bad guys are, the only leverage we have as a nation is through geopolitical channels. And we have all been watching that soap opera for a while now.

But I was not involved in law enforcement or anything like that. I was a white hat at a medical billing services company and mostly did pentesting and application development.

 

Thanks for posting this! I'm looking to recruit for the sale role. I've got a year of experience in an investment role at a family office in private capital as well as internships.

What are somethings that help you stand out in the recruitment process?

What are something that are expected of you coming in day 1? How has your role evolved since then?

Thanks!

 

Nice. What kind of a sale role? And what kind of private investments do you have experience with? Might give me a better idea of where to go with the answer.

In the recruitment process, I stood out for being easily pegged as a quantitative guy. Programming languages and software development on my resume, that kind of thing.

However, that's not an option for most people. I can say that what will make you stand out is being familiar with the mechanics of a deal. "Cash-free, debt free," knowing what a shareholder's agreement is and where to find the waterfall procedure in it, things like that. If you have any experience in the actual purchase or sale of a business, you will be at the top of the candidate pool. If you don't, Google it.

On day one, just know that you are not expected to know anything, but you are expected to ask questions and learn quickly. Be hungry. Do not make the same mistake twice. You will be forgiven for ignorance and inexperience, but you have to ask the right questions and be resourceful.

 

Donnie - sorry for the typo! Edit: I'm recruiting for the same role

More info about me: Undergraduate with 2 internships, one in public equity and one in private equity. Full time experience is acquisitions for a gaming/real estate operating company. Graduated 1 year ago. My purchase/sale experience has yet to go full cycle with my full time experience. Deal fell through during due diligence period.

Do you strictly focus on financial due diligence or are you involved with modeling and deal execution in your group? These are broken out into different teams with the groups I've spoken to. (Big 4).

 

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