Exit opps from post-MBA finance at a big tech firm?

Very interested to know what the exit opps look like for someone who did 1-2 years of post-MBA finance at a major tech firm (Amazon/Apple/Microsoft/Google/Facebook). Will he be stuck in corporate finance or can he transition into hedge funds, private equity, etc.?

 

Speaking for myself (hoping my post doesn't come across as offensive) I'd be afraid of being pigeonholed into a rather unexciting corporate career. At these companies the finance function is secondary and is seen as a back office support role. Sure the hours and pay will be decent but which top MBA isn't ambitious enough to want to have a fast paced high impact career?

 
Guest1655:
Speaking for myself (hoping my post doesn't come across as offensive) I'd be afraid of being pigeonholed into a rather unexciting corporate career. At these companies the finance function is secondary and is seen as a back office support role. Sure the hours and pay will be decent but which top MBA isn't ambitious enough to want to have a fast paced high impact career?

My job is super laid back, and the hours are fantastic. I also like my group. But there is not enough modeling, valuation, and research. I also hate the city I live in and badly want to move to either NYC/Chicago/LA.

 
Best Response

Sounds like the issue is the type of work your group does, and not necessarily "corporate finance" or the company you're at. corporate finance can mean a lot of different things and certainly isn't apples-to-apples from one company to another. Instead of looking for greener grass in PE/HF, why not try and work you way into an internal group that is more aligned to your interests? If you're a high potential, corp strategy and corp development are common rotations, and not necessarily careers at all companies. What you need to understand is, if you want to move up, your company may want to develop you in different areas of the business, and not just the groups that WSO think are "sexy". For example, you want to be a CFO/CEO, it's important to rotate through various groups that expose you to different operational aspects of the business: supply, marketing, sales, controllers, global, etc. (based on industry). That being said, if all you want to do is valuations/research, I'd agree that corporate finance may not be the right role for you long-term.

 

"Finance" when it comes to corporate role at a f500 is a bit all encompassing because there are so many roles within that. That said, without having had any valuation experience there is essentially no chance of you having exit opps like PE/HF. If you do corp dev it's possible to a tech focused lower MM, but extremely improbable. Better option might be a lateral to a MM bank (which is still only a possibility if you so corp dev) and then become a tech expert that can leverage the industry knowledge into a lower MM PE jump at the VP stage.

 
AllDay_028:
"Finance" when it comes to corporate role at a f500 is a bit all encompassing because there are so many roles within that. That said, without having had any valuation experience there is essentially no chance of you having exit opps like PE/HF. If you do corp dev it's possible to a tech focused lower MM, but extremely improbable. Better option might be a lateral to a MM bank (which is still only a possibility if you so corp dev) and then become a tech expert that can leverage the industry knowledge into a lower MM PE jump at the VP stage.

This is probably true for the most part. A good friend of mine did recently leave a corporate finance role at a major non-tech F500 firm for an operational/due diligence role at a megafund PE, responsible for the various portfolio companies. It's not actual investing but still a great job.

 

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