Corp. Fin.

CFA General
#1

anyone have ideas on ways to network for / get corporate finance gigs? i’m thinking something on the lines of m&a etc for a large, successful firm such as apple / google etc.

#2

MBA

#3

that also from top school. These companies go to top Business school for hiring. Exp in working with I-bank/VC could also help.

#4

any ideas assuming no mba but ER / Consulting background?

#5

Would you hire you?

#6

niraj_a Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > any ideas assuming no mba but ER / Consulting > background? ^That would translate pretty well to a corporate development position (I work in corporate development). Maybe consider targeting whatever industry you covered in ER? There really aren’t a ton of corporate development posting out there regularly. As was pointed out, these positions are generally recruited at MBA career centers. However, they also do make experienced hires. If you do a search for corporate development on indeed.com you will get an idea of what they’re looking for, which is generally a few years of IB, corp dev, or consulting, with good financial modeling skills and project management/due diligence experience.

#7

artvandalay’s suggestion assessment is spot on. A top MBA is the best route; strategy consulting at a top firm or investment banking would be an alternate route. It used to be occasionally possible to get into corporate finance at a non-finance company from equity research, but because hiring for these roles is relatively sparse and don’t go through headhunters, they have the opportunity to pick from a huge range of candidates and find their best fit.

#8

IT --> CFA —> MBA —> Corp. Fin.

#9

thanks all, that helps

#10

Depends, I see few “IT”/non-IB/“front office” people in corporate development roles at the prestigious firms you mentioned. Apple for instance takes a fair share of stanford MBAs, and firms like Disney are known to love MS M&A types. Previous corporate finance/M&A modelling/spreading comps till you die experience most likely required for the upper crust, hence why so many IB analysts go to corporate development after 2-3 years.