Chances of IB
Title says it, but let me have it.
Intentionally vague but progressively more specific background on myself:
- non-target UG: Finance BBA, average GPA
- 3 yrs in PWM at a no-name shop, Analyst > Sr. Analyst
- Enrolled in MFin at what would otherwise- I have the entirely non-unique opinion that this degree does not carry the same weight as an UG or MBA would from the same institution - be a semi-target, for the brand, 3.8 (rounded) GPA, graduating in May.
- ~10 months into a corp dev associate stint at a large energy company. Focus has been primarily M&A, but nothing to show for it yet, some corporate capital, and an endless stream of "strategic initiatives".
My goal is to leverage existing, and potentially budding, relationships to break into a Power & Utilities group at an
IB
.
Prestige is something that, until I break in, couldn't care less about. My ask for the community is an honest, gut reaction and simple "this is why I feel that way". Happy to share any additional details that would help solidify an opinion one way or the other.
Cheers!
**Edit: For context, i'm in the U.S. and any advice above and beyond your gut reaction is certainly encouraged.
Comments ( 12 )
DC F, sorry there are no responses yet. Maybe one of these topics can point you in the right direction:
More suggestions...
Fingers crossed that one of those helps you.
.
You're starting from a good place right now with the Corp Dev role.
The most straightforward way for you to make the transition is to continue killing it at your current job, study for the GMAT/GRE, and try to get into the best FT MBA program that you can in order to pivot into IB .
Your background will make it pretty easy to tell a story for "Why IB?" and "Why Power & Utilities specifically?" during recruiting.
Appreciate the thoughts. I think, generally (corp fin > mba > IB), that's a well travelled path and if nothing else confirms my thinking that a non- mba entrance could be elusive. I'd be curious to hear your, or anyone that sees this, thoughts on entry w/o an MBA . I do collaborate/interface with BBs with some regularity, but it's not clear to me that tapping those relationships without past IB experience and without an MBA would yield the result if looking for.
Assuming you have a chance to close some transactions during your corporate development stint, you would be better positioned to lateral into a IB analyst role than you might think, especially compared to candidates that might only have corporate finance experience doing FP&A, for example.
That being said, a couple things to keep in mind:
1) The older you are, the more difficult it will be to land an analyst role, and firms would start to look at you as more of an associate candidate. This presents a different set of challenges as they would probably have different/potentially higher expectations for an experienced hire associate vs an MBA associate who they would anticipate having to train from the ground up.
2) While Corp Dev --> IB is definitely possible, you might have to look down market and target middle market or lower middle market type firms. All of this is assuming deal making returns to normal in a year or two as banks are downsizing left and right at the moment.
Know of multiple people who've made the corp dev -> IB jump with roughly similar YOE. Definitely worth taking a shot at recruiting directly before going down the MBA route, although you should be prepared to get 0 credit for your prior exp and start as an AN1 (very best case is you'll get 1 year of credit which is probably unlikely, or a "we'll start you as an AN1 but if you do well after 6 months we may bump you up to AN2 early".
Yup. Just wanted to add that there might be some advantages to starting as an AN1 or 2, particularly if you're interested in buyside exits. Even as an older analyst, I imagine that door is significantly more open to someone in that position compared to someone that's a post-MBA ASO. At the end of the day, being a mid-20's analyst isn't so bad when you consider that you can probably make VP by 30 which would put you younger than most post-MBA ASO's.
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This is very helpful context…I had wrongfully assumed moving from CD -> IB would be close to a lateral move at least from a title perspective so I appreciate the level setting. A follow up then, if I may: how late is too late to move? Ie if I were to wait to recruit until after a promo above assoc in CD, can I reasonably expect a similar rung down movement into IB (assoc in CD to AN in IB) into an assoc spot? or is it generally the case that assoc hires are either inter-bank or summer associate-> FT hires ?
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