corporate development

Hi all - thought I'd give back to the community that helped me a lot when I was in your shoes by doing a Q&A. Some background on me: BS in Business from top 25 university Worked as an analyst in the M&A group of an EB / advisory shop Currently on the strategic finance team at a late-stage, pre-IPO tech company (Series C+ / $2bn+ valuation) ~4 years of experience across both banking and my current role Open to answering any questions you may have - feel free to ask away. WSO Mentor Want to work with me? Check out my profile here.

24 Nov 2020

Open to all questions about career progression, all things M&A, working for a Fortune 500, avoiding IB, quitting job for a start-up, MBA, etc.. Background * Former Director of Corporate Development for highly acquisitive diversified industrial company (14 transactions representing over $1.5 billion in transaction value) * 8 years of Corporate Development experience (promoted 4 times in 8 years from Analyst – Director) * Quit job in 2019 to start productivity software company * Decided to avoid IB after starting career * Started career in Big 4 valuations practice * BS in Finance and

27 Jul 2020

Hey Guys/ Gals, I have been following WSO for a few years now. This is my first post and my goal here is to seek advice, as well as extend it in anyway I can, given my situation. Situation: I went to a non- target in the south for undergrad and managed to get a F150 corp dev job right out of school this year. I went through a pretty extensive networking effort to obtain an IB role these past few years, but nobody wanted me as their slave. I am super grateful for this position during a pandemic-- and although I am only a few months in-- I am receiving great exposure to senior executives

20 Aug 2020

Hi, I just started my first year at a high-tier MM IB in a well-regarded industry group. I am really enjoying the work so far, how the culture is, and I am happy with where I am at. All the other first year analysts have began discussing the PE recruitment timeline, but I am interested in Corporate Development (CD) and Venture Capital (VC) in my industry vertical (potentially another one as well but I know sticking to my industry is far easier and I am enjoying it thus far). I have four topics/questions I would like to know more about: 1) Any insight around the timeline for CD and/or VC

23 Sep 2020

Hi, just started my career in investment banking and am really enjoying it. I am looking for some insight into what the CD recruiting timeline is like and what I should be doing now for it.

23 Sep 2020

Hi all - I've been selectively searching for corp dev roles over the past few months and continue to come across certain positions titled as "Corporate M&A Analyst". After doing some research, I haven't been able locate much background info on these types of roles. I've found these types of positions sometimes sit within a company's corp dev team (also depending on if the company has a dedicated team) and typically report directly to the DoF and CFO. From talking to a few recruiters, the job seems to be mostly focused on the deal close process, with potentially a bit of strategy and sourcing

12 Jun 2020

Currently a second year IB analyst at a MM shop in NYC, and wondering what attractive exit opportunities there may be apart from PE/HF. Primarily interested in something strategy oriented with a high-growth company. Understand corporate development is somewhat aligned here, and in the right scenario I would be open to that, but would more so like to have exposure to broader strategy and not be restricted to asset acquisition/divestment. Appreciate any help and more than willing to provide additonal detail if that would be helpful.

27 Dec 2019

Hi guys, I've got 3 years of experience in private equity and corporate development at a start-up (fund raising) and I'm looking to go into a larger MNC that does corporate development. A recruiter signalled to me that corp dev careers tend to have a dead-end. The reasons are: a) There's not that many roles to go around particularly if you're interested in staying in financial services b) Corp Dev/Strat roles don't lead to an obvious C-suite position - you can't really be CFO/COO/CEO - potentially Chief Strategy Officer but thats still an upcoming role and isn't commonplace. I live in

06 Nov 2019

Hi WSO, I currently have an offer for a corporate development role with a small [ ] group. They currently have [redacted] The role will be involved in the whole m&a process including integration and also working on operational finance. Would this experience help me get into a private credit fund? I am currently a [redacted] with a boutique firm. I have gone through a first round with a private credit fund for their healthcare vertical but the process is moving extremely slow. I am in loss in what I should do. Debating if I should take the CD opportunity or try for the private credit fund and

26 Feb 2020

How is the corporate development function of company generally viewed during recessions? Do companies generally layoff a significant portion of the CD team if deals are halted or does the CD team pivot to assist in other special projects?

20 Aug 2019

My ask: My boss asked me to book some professional development / trainings for myself, since we have some extra money to burn before EoY. I'd like to make a move towards CS or CD in 2021, so want to make sure what I choose is aligned with that. So, does anyone have recommendations for trainings or professional development trainings that would be useful for a CS / CD career path? I know CS especially is pretty soft skill-driven, but curious if there are any thoughts. Background: I work for a technology-focused industrial company and I'm currently in a manager role at the business-unit level

15 Nov 2020

What industry do you think has interesting operations or business models that makes the corporate development work exciting and/or interesting?

11 Nov 2020

Just landed a VP of Corp Dev role at a PortCo of the MF that I just left. The challenge is that I've only done 2 years at a BB and 2 years at an MF, so I have 0 Corp Dev experience beyond doing a couple add-ons in PE. Thankfully I have some industry background as I worked in the same sector group in banking and PE (I was not assigned to the company when I was associate so I don't have a ton of background on it). It's a decently scaled business ($100mm+ Rev, growing 20%+, 20%+ Margins), but they've never done any M&A before, so there is no infrastructure available for me to leverage and the VP

01 Sep 2019

Background Lancaster UK Accounting & Finance degree with professional CA (Aust & NZ) certifications. Majority of my work was financial audits, due diligence, IPO work & consultancy in Big4, with short stints in Operations in retail group (both health, beauty & dry, fresh grocery products) and e-commerce Technology start-up company. Any questions are welcome. I'm glad I have been able to land the dream job that I am looking for after efforts and research and would like to give back in ways possible, within my knowledge to those who can benefit from it. WSO Mentor Want to work with me? Check out

14 Oct 2020

Hi everyone. There have been some recent threads on corporate development and strategy, and I thought I would share my own experience through a Q&A and give back to the community. My background is fairly mixed, and I graduated with a technical degree from a non-target/semi-target three years ago and cumulatively gained esoteric investing, PE, and corporate development and strategy experience at a large bank and a lower middle market PE firm. Currently, I'm working in New York at a large private company on a corporate development and strategy team whose scope also includes partnerships and

12 Jan 2019

Hi All, I recently got an interview with Thrasio and was wondering if anyone has interviewed with them before for an M&A Analyst position? The position is essentially corporate development, but I am looking for any information regarding the interview process as there is not a consensus format/structure based on what I've read online. Thanks

19 Sep 2020

I'm a sophomore at a semi-target looking to use this internship as a stepping stone to recruit for investment banking next year. Which one would investment banks think of as better? BB PWM is at MS/JPM/BAML. My thinking is the corporate development position is more relevant to IB but the BB has a much better name and is very respected by all investment banks.

11 Dec 2018

Hi, Has anyone experienced have information on Amex Ventures (www.amexventures.com)? Is this just their corpdev team re-named or a separate VC manager, funded by Amex? Curious to hear anything on street reputation, culture, team size, target deals, and comp/promotion (particularly whether they use phantom shares or other LTIP to mirror carry). Would be great to hear experienced professional's views as I would be looking at a more mid-level role. Thank you

21 Aug 2020

There are countless articles regarding the buy side vs. sell side in terms of similarities and differences. What about between corp dev and sell-side? Corp-dev meaning that you work on deals for the company itself and underwrite your own deals and sell-side where you represent clients. My train of thought so far is the following: Similarities: -Basically a generalist in terms of deal type (M&A, debt offerings, equity offerings, spin-offs) -Same ebb and flow of a typical deal timeline -Same soft and technical skills needed of a sell-side analyst Differences: -To others, people may view you as

30 Nov 2018

Hi all, About nine months ago, I was let go from my first post-grad position at a small RIA (a story that I shared here previously). I've since met up with my former boss a few times, and he confirmed that my position was eliminated - they haven't hired anyone in my place. That being said, my job search in the past nine months has been an absolute misery. I have been ghosted more times than I can count, showed up at final rounds only to find out I was totally unqualified to begin with, and had not one, but two separate offers fall through due to internal company reasons. To give you a little

12 Dec 2018

I am currently in Corporate FP&A at a relatively medium large market cap company. I have been offered a business development role at bio-tech / Pharmaceutical company but I can't seem to get a clear picture of what it is I would be doing and what skills I would already need. Any insight on Bus Dev analyst day to day and technical or hard skills I need for the role?

04 Aug 2020

Got an offer as a senior associate (I think it's the same as a senior manager?) in corporate development. All-in it looks like it would range from $200-$275k (salary is $165k). Is this where the market is for a senior associate / senior manager in corporate development? Anyone in corporate development that could comment?

12 Jun 2018

Hello, I have been in banking for a few years now and have the opportunity to join a corporate dev team really well respected in a niche chemical industry. My only worry is what happens if it doesn't go well? Am I then stuck in that industry? Thanks!

08 Jun 2019

Just was curious, how folks went about asking about potential roles with firms they interacted with. In my current role (Corp Dev), we do get inbounds from decent banks and some interesting PE firms. I'm curious if there was a way that some people had success with, with regard to asking about potential employment. I understand its a bit of a fine line you need to manage but was wondering if there were any success stories out there and how they managed. TIA

06 May 2019

Hope that everyone is well. I was looking to move to corporate development after spending a few years here in banking. I have a few interviews upcoming and just wanted to get a sense of a few things from folks who had been through the process -- 1) Was the format of the interview similar to typical IB interviews? Was it heavily geared towards technicals? Or more fit/industry focused along with discussions on deal experience? I was wondering if there was a particular way I should prep. 2) Is there a comp range that I should be asking for post 2 years in banking? These are senior analyst roles

20 Jun 2018

Hey guys, thanks in advance for your input. I currently have the option to switch from Big 4 Audit to M&A (Financial Due Diligence). I've always wanted to switch to FDD due to the nature of the work being more exciting than audit; however, it was mostly with the end goal of leveraging that experience to do corporate dev/strategy after. I just came across a role as a "Strategic Partner Manager" for a well known and fast growing semi-startup and see this as a DREAM job, but I wanted to check for others opinion on whether this is truly a "strategy" role and not simply account managing. Below is a

26 Mar 2019

I have about 5 years experience, I left big 4 audit as a senior and I'm now the FP&A manager at a small (~30-50M rev), fast growing company. I would love to move into corporate development, but I lack the M&A experience that will likely be a barrier to entry. It's not necessarily the M&A that interests me, it's the strategic/high impact finance element that I'm an drawn to. I do get a decent amount of exposure to strategic projects/initiatives, but I also spend some time with not as interesting things like annual budget, BvA that doesn't add value and is just QC. I expect this mix will

27 Sep 2017

Hi guys Background - Big 4 Audit followed by close to 3 years in Strategic Finance Analyst role in leading corporate. Currently on 60k PS and most likely going to get bumped to 65k in Dec but high chance to 70k & promotion to Manager role. Exploring Corporate Development opportunities. Have had interviews for multiple manager / analyst roles at 70-75k however despite positive feedback miss out to ppl with T/S or traditional banking background. Some roles that recruiters have approached me with from SMEs / several hundred m turnover companies are on 55-60k. Is it worth taking such a side ways /

17 Oct 2018

Context: I currently work in firm/corporate strategy at a top BB (GS/MS) and deciding between multiple Corporate Development role offers at F500 financial services firms (think Paypal/Visa/Square). My long term goal is to apply to a top-10 b-school after working in corporate development for at least 1-2 years. Question: Is this a fruitful MBA strategy? Should I remain at my current role which is at a prestigious firm but is a more business development focused role and then apply, or switch to this corporate development associate role at a less "gold-plated" firm (still F500) but is a

05 Feb 2019

Just heard back from a private firm with ~700m in sales in retail/tech space for a corpdev senior analyst/associate role (1-1.5 years of boutique M&A experience from target UG). A senior ex-banker and I will make up the team. They asked me about comp, and I stuck to my guns and deferred to them with the usual salary negotiation lines and diagnostic questioning techniques. Their HR said they will call with a hard salary number tomorrow after "conducting comp data analysis" and speaking to the CFO. May you guys list expected comp ranges? I've conducted extensive research regarding the matter

17 May 2017

Hi all! In an effort to keep this as brief as possible, I wanted to get opinions on Corporate Development roles with a particular focus on the transactional functions of said roles. If possible, I'd love insight from individuals who've had experience in Investment Banking, Private Equity & CD. In short, is it about the size or the motion in the ocean? In evaluating someone's experience, how important is deal size relative to deal frequency? While an ideal situation would be working at a huge company that makes relatively big acquisitions & doing so pretty frequently, let's suppose a less than

05 Sep 2017

Some of you might know that i recently switched into corporate development after doing ~3 years of banking and getting promoted to associate. I'm a couple months in, but can answer any questions you may have Update 2/21/17: We recently completed a $200 million acquisition and are now preparing for Bolt-ons. As a result of the process, I was promoted to Manager (junior/mid-level position). Excited to continue learning, witnessing tremendous business growth and building a track record here.

23 Dec 2016

Hey Guys- Wondering if I'm completely insane here or just stupid. I've been working in Large Cap TMT companies in a variety of roles for the past decade: Corp Dev, Biz Dev, marketing, management consulting, analytics. Past few years, I took the side-door into corporate development as an operational expert for TMT companies. In short, we had a few acquisitions that looked great on paper, but any sort of operational expert in TMT would see early on large issues with the transaction beyond the IRR. Because of that, they put me on to oversee all the operational due diligence and sourcing from

03 Jun 2019

I've typically been looking at PE roles with a healthcare focus, but recently an opportunity came up to work at a PE-backed company that acquires healthcare providers and rolls them into a consolidated entity. They've executed 15+ deals in the last year and seem to be doing well. The role would be a CorpDev associate - going around and executing these small transactions. I'd think pros would be a good knowledge base in a growing area, relatively interesting work (I like the space), and opportunity to do a lot of deals (even if small). Cons (vs. PE) would be comp (both immediate and trajectory)

29 Mar 2020

Yo, currently working at an economic consulting firm and was lucky enough to lateral into a corp dev analyst opportunity. I have a Masters in Finance and about 3 years worth of experience and will be starting as an analyst at this firm. They are a S&P 400 tech (midcap) firm with a high growth business. It's a small team with managers having gone to HSW and worked at MBB. I like the firm and the people and the position reports directly to the executive suite which is nice. I do not want to go back for a MBA, are my exit opportunities limited to internal roles? I am happy doing corp dev for the

12 Nov 2018

So I have done research on the corpdev recruiting cycle - It seems like there actually isn't one. From what I have seen it is nothing like PE and jobs just pop up whenever they are available (rather than a certain time of year). Because of this, I have a few questions on how to make my way into the industry. Before, some background on me is I work at a BB in IB but in a non M&A/LevFin product group (its a group unique to the bank). Its actually a very strategy focused group, so hopefully the variety of projects will help differentiate me. 1 - how to get an interview? It seems like asking my MD

07 Dec 2016

Hi WSO, was wondering if I could get some insight on a potential summer 2019 internship. I'm a sophmore at a Canadian target who worked in FP&A at a Big 3 Canadian telecommunications company (Rogers, Bell, Telus), and have the opportunity to lateral into corporate development next summer (just gave away my identity, but that's fine). Currently, there's not a lot of M&A activity in the Canadian telecom space, as the market is very consolidated. However, the team was still really busy this past summer. I'd love some insight/advice on this opportunity. Thanks in advance.

10 Oct 2018

Quick question wanted to run by everyone if possible. I spent some time in investment banking particularly in one industry (1-3 years experience) and now am working in equity research with a top ranked analyst in a subsection of that same industry. I made the switch because I am very much interested in my industry (healthcare, technology, consumer) and wanted to take a deep dive spending time analyzing individual companies/individual products or services and their prospects. I am thinking about my longer term career and at least at this stage I could really see myself working in an internal

03 Oct 2018

Hey all, I was wondering if anyone can share some insight on what the starting salary and career progression looks like starting off as a financial advisor at a bulge bracket like MS or JPM. I recently just graduated this summer after having to take one class, and after many interviews I don't have anything substantial. I was wondering if getting hired by a team with close to a billion in AUM, would start off paying a salary, or if it is entirely all commission. And if salary, what exactly could it be Thank you.

11 Sep 2017

I am a post-MBA Corp Dev professional, but my long term goal is to be CFO at a growth stage company. At some point, I will have to make the transition from Corp Dev to Finance, and I was curious if anyone out there has made the transition successfully. There are certainly many CFOs out there who had pretty extensive Corp Dev experience (e.g., Brian Robert, CFO of Lyft, and Amrita Ahuja, CFO of Square come to mind), so I hope I'm not mistaken in thinking the Corp Dev experience will be useful later on. A few questions: 1. What's the right amount of time to spend in Corp Dev? I feel like it

18 Feb 2020

I was wondering if anyone knew what jobs outside IB looked like in Canada. Toronto overall has less of a finance scene than NY so I had a few questions. 1- What finance related job do most people go into besides banking in Canada? 2- What's PE, HF, PWM, Financial Analysis, Corporate Finance, Corporate Development and Asset Management like in Toronto? 3- Is consulting as developed as IB in Canada? Is it mostly at the Big 4 or is there a lot of MBB presence? 4- Accounting in Canada has extremely low salaries compared to the U.S, is it the same for PWM, Corp Finance, and other non-IB finance jobs

04 Feb 2018

Curious how a MO role (i.e. corporate dev., investor relations, etc.) at a top HF (i.e. Citadel, Bridgewater, etc.) coming out of undergrad will place in top 10 b-schools in ~2 years. End goal after MBA does not involve FO or the finance industry in general. Has anyone gone down a similar path? Any input is appreciated.

16 Mar 2017

I have an upcoming phone interview for a corporate development internship position doing M&A work. This is for a company in the industrials sector. I'm coming from an accounting background and have an MBA. Just wanted to know if anyone has had experience with these phone interviews for this type of position and what I should expect in the phone call (technical questions, fit questions, both?). Thanks.

08 Feb 2017

Has anyone worked with this group before? They reached out to me a couple of weeks ago, trying to see if it's worth a discussion. Anyone have a sense of their culture, work / life style and balance, compensation, and overall the group itself?

02 Jun 2018

tl;dr: Assessing career next steps. Pros / cons of IBD associate vs. Corp dev. Like many of you, I've been following WSO over the years and am in need of some advice. I've done 3 years of banking and am now thinking about next steps for my career. I enjoy my job but I want some outside perspective on how to think about what my next move should be or if I should continue along my current path. 1. Recently promoted to Associate @ TMT IBD ($250k all-in comp). 2. Option to move into a Corporate Development role at a Tech / Media company ($150k comp). (sidenote: Long term goal is to learn to find

07 Nov 2016

Hey guys, I spoke with Andy a week or two ago about doing a Q&A regarding my path from non-target to banking and beyond - so here it is. To sum up my path for those who may not know: I didn't apply myself in high school, and saw a bunch of my friends who did care about their work move on to great schools across the country – ones that I couldn't get into due to my grades. I wasn't pulling a 2.0 or anything, I was just firmly middle of the pack at a school full of strong students, when I should have been near the top. So I took a scholarship offer at a non-target in the SEC, not the best school

11 Sep 2015

lbo models are ubiquitous in PE--the sponsor's trying to lever up and then exit in reasonable time frame. Question: is LBO valuation used in corporate development as valuation methodology? For instance if you're looking at a target and want to fund 60% of the transaction with debt. Are there justifications to use LBO approach? My guess is not... because you're not a sponsor who's looking to exit (assume you're doing it for strategic reasons) but I don't work in corp dev so not sure. Any thoughts welcome.

08 Mar 2016

I'm a junior investment banker who's currently trying to decide between an exit opportunity in the corporate development & strategy team at a F500 financial services firm (modelling, strategic projects, M&A) or an analyst role in a small VC (sourcing, modelling, due diligence). Both have small, entrepreneurial cultures and I like the people in both teams. I want to choose the role that would keep the most doors open for me in the long run, so I wanted to know about people's experiences in terms of the skills they picked up in venture capital and how transferrable they are. I also wanted to

20 Nov 2018

I'm a junior investment banker who's currently trying to decide between an exit opportunity in the corporate development & strategy team at a F500 financial services firm (modelling, strategic projects, M&A) or an analyst role in a small VC (sourcing, modelling, due diligence). Both have small, entrepreneurial cultures and I like the people in both teams. I want to choose the role that would keep the most doors open for me in the long run, so I wanted to know about people's experiences in terms of the skills they picked up in corporate development and how transferrable they are. I also wanted

20 Nov 2018

Everyone here talks about PE after the analyst program, and that's understood given most of the people are maybe 2 or 3 years removed from underdgrad. But what about the long way if you've missed the bus in PE? I'm 10 years out of my analyst program and have done random stuff since then. Worked abroad, started a company (unfortunately not successful), top-10 b-school, now working in corporate development. I know I'm not going to get into PE applying through recruiters, because I'm too old for associate position, and probably not going to get an opportunity at the VP level. Getting back to my

30 Mar 2017