Thats a 5-word brief I have on a position offered to me in Corp fin department of my current organization. How would that be in a large Manufacturing Conglomerate? I know that this work would be great in a consultancy or I Bank, but is it going to be a good experience in a Manufacturing organization’s Corporate Finance department as well? Many thanks for your advise guys. Truly appreciate the same.
Corporate development would be great experience. It’s probably the only job I would do if I ever went back to corp fin. I would compare it to M&A in an IB, with corp fin hours (except when you’re trying to close deals…long hours then). Plus, it’s great experience if you ever do want to move over to the IB side.
Thanks a lot for the opinion Steph. I have got similar reviews and think I will take this opportunity.
I would definitely have to agree with steph96. The only 2 drawbacks here is that you don’t have the same luster/glitter/respect which Investment Bankers clearly have. In Corporate Finance, not alot of people in that organization will really appreciate the sophistication, complexity, and impact of the major strategic deals you are doing. This of course, will lead to a lower-than-IB bonus pay. On the positive note, if you truly are bent on an IB’s work, then this is the next best thing. First of all, you do all the fun analytical stuff without the extremely high expectations as the IBs, implying that you will be able to “awe” the corporate people. Secondly, if you were to rise up the ranks in an IB, let’s say as Managing Director, you would end up essentially as a salesman where you try to fish for deals here and there. Of course, you will have to understand what goes into the analysis of the transaction, but the number crunching would be less and less as you move up. In Corporate Finance M&A, you would essentially do all the analysis without the pressure of pitching and booking a deal with clients year after year.
It’s one of the best jobs in the world. And you get Invetsment Bankers to kiss your ass.
I told my CEO that I want to make switch and would take the new opportunity. He was also offering me something like a key position in Strategic Marketing and heading the IPR cell that he wants to set up. I had a quite powerful position in my current role and definitely will have to start at junior-most level in Corp fin. But what really compelled me to opt for the change, among better learning and exit opportunities, was the feedback that I received from people. This honestly was not such a coveted profile in my B-School. Adding to that, it was usually considered more accounting work than anything. Lets see. I hope that this turns out to be a wise decision. @JOAT, the pay sucks in my company. Even the undergraduates in other companies earn twice as much as my company pays to MBAs 
Also, my plan is probably to get into a bank’s Corp Fin department/IB after acquiring some experience. It looks like this would be a good route to take that path as per the posts above. @Viceroy, didn’t you just exaggerated a little too much? sounds too good to be true. Thanks once again.
Good luck & let us know how it goes! Sounds like you need to get the experience, then get out.
Based on friends who did this role, and F500 I interned in. There is one major difference too, when the deal is done the bankers go home, while in a role like this you still work closely the strategy finance/marketing/operations team, since you have to actually implement the acquisition so it made sense in the first place.
No I am not exagerating. Corporate development/corporate M&A guys are on the top of the food chain. Let leak for a few second that your company is contemplating to perform acquisitions and you’ll have a dozen pitches from IBs who want to advise you on the transaction, potential interesting targets, etc… Then you’ll have another dozen of PE guys who will want an exit on some investments and want to sell their shit to you. You may also, depending on your company, have commercial bankers calling you to sell you financing for the transaction. Then you’ll have the Big 4s pitching you their Financial Due Diligence. Then the McKinseys of this world pitching you their strategy & integration crap. Point is that you won’t be pitching anybody except your board, and maybe eventually for financing. At least on the buy side. Yes, it is pretty much the top of the food chain in the corporate finance universe. Do enjoy it, you a$$hole 
Dumb question 'cause I don’t know much about Corp Finance but what are some good companies/good type of companies to look at for employment? I’m thinking more large conglomerate type companies. I’m in Chicago and moving to a smaller midwest city soon so I’m trying to figure out possible companies to target.
Anupamjain - Don’t worry about the pay now. The specialized skillz you will be acquiring in M&A will be your leverage for a higher pay. The more complex your deals are, the more bargaining power you have with recruiters. I doubt though, if banking would be your exit strategy for Corporate Finance. I’m not so sure if IBs higher from the “industry”, but I would guess - not so much. Agree with Viceroy. Pitching (i.e., begging for) deals is the main role for the advisory side, which was my point in my first post above. Adehbone - I think it depends on the company you are in. I know from some friends that once the deal is done, they leave it all up to the operations people. For the M&A personnel, you move on to the next project without looking back, unless some post-closing conditions mess up.
@Steph. Thanks a lot and I will surely make it a point to share my experience. Had to take a decision on a very short notice of 24 hours and your reply was instrumental in boosting my confidence. @adehbone, I would not mind supporting in implementation of the deal. In fact I believe that would be a good experience as well. However, my firm is nowhere close to a Fortune 500. Just about 8000 employees and a turnover of US$400 million. Don’t think that comparison would be fair. But still, its just a start for me. @Viceroy, I wonder how clueless I was even after taking the decision. I honestly had no ideas what the role would be. Thought that it would be some financial modeling work and basically reading Balance sheets etc. Still I’d prefer to postpone the feel-good-factor for a few weeks till I actually find out about the work myself. Thanks for giving me the glimpse (of what probably the CFO’s lifestyle is). If what you are saying is true in my firm as well, then nothing like it. @ mep_cfa’10, Please tell us about your background/qualifications etc. I think that people here would be able to guide you better after that. @ JOAT, Money is not really a criteria as long as there are benefits to reap later. I actually turned down quite a few lucrative offers to stick to this role because I had reasons to believe that I’d be on a fast-track in this organization. I am planning to complete L3 and also have an MBA from a well-known institute. I am betting on the alumni network and the network I build while in this role to help me make a shift. As per Steph’s post, “it’s great experience if you ever do want to move over to the IB side”, I was assuming that it would not be very difficult to move to PE/IB. What would be the typical exits for people from Corporate Finance? Which areas are likely to pick them?
I believe Corporate Finance people with also pursue Corporate Strategy roles in other conglomerates. They would be very welcome in PE as intimate knowledge in a particular industry is essential. IB would be secondary to the above choices, I think. Nevertheless, I think it is a fulfilling role especially since you still plan to pursue graduate studies.
I already have an MBA and I was referring to the alumni base of my institute! My bad I wasn’t clear enough.
jackofalltrades Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > > Adehbone - I think it depends on the company you > are in. I know from some friends that once the > deal is done, they leave it all up to the > operations people. For the M&A personnel, you move > on to the next project without looking back, > unless some post-closing conditions mess up. This is how we work. Once we close a deal, operations takes over and MAYBE someone bothers me a couple weeks later about how much we budgeted for transition costs. It’s a pretty nice deal since we get all the credit
anupamjain008 Wrote: > @ mep_cfa’10, > > Please tell us about your > background/qualifications etc. I think that people > here would be able to guide you better after > that. I have 6 years of experience in a more middle/back office role so I do not know how plausible a transition into corporate finance would even be. I currently live in Chicago and will be moving to Des Moines eventually (in the next year or so) but I have some really good contacts there through family (the in-laws) that may help some. I would have no problem taking a lateral or more likely in this situation, a subordinate position to what I currently hold. For the past 3 years I have worked in the structured finance department at a large commercial bank working on mainly MBS, Ginnie & Fannie deals. The main focus is modeling the new deals, training analysts, and producing monthly reports for the institutional investors. It is not a very glamorous position but I have been able to learn some more basic cash flow and bond modeling and have made some contacts at the IB’s that have underwritten our deals. I do not see securitization picking up any time soon so I would think making a transition soon would be optimal. My previous position was at an asset management company in their corporate technology dept in a more budget analyst type role. I helped forecast revenues, budgets, etc. It was my first position out of college. I realize that getting into corporate finance is pretty difficult, especially with my background but I am not looking to do this in NYC. I figure working in a smaller Midwest city may help. I am also taking level I in June. Any suggestions, thoughts would be appreciated. Thanks.
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So I finally got an update. It is going to be a different role than what was told to me earlier. This role shall be in Treasury Management/Cash Management and I shall report to the Head of Treasury Management of my firm. I will not report to the CFO. That said, as per the CFO, this role is going to last ony for 1.5-2 months to give me an idea of the work. After that they will see some different assignment (perhaps in some other department) for me. How do you guys see this opportunity? What would be the work involved in Treasury/Cash Management in Corporate Finance of a manufacturing organization? I am moving to new role on Monday.
Treasury can be good experience, but I don’t know about cash management. I get the feeling they do lots of reconciliations and accounting type tasks (just from observation). If your company is not large enough to be dealing with fx exposure, CP, or collateralization I don’t know how ‘glamorous’ it will be. What happened to the Corp Development job? I would push back on that if it was promised. I’ve done Corp Development in manufacturing and now energy and I would recommend that over treasury unless you can deal with some of the areas mentioned above.
I had a meeting with the CFO and he told me that I shall be in Cash/Treasury Management for some time to give me the exposure and I did not say anything about Corporate Development. I just accepted it as he said. AFA I understand, the head of Treasury and Cash management is the same person, and hence it totally depends on him as to what task to give me. I am hoping to be able to acquire at least a broad based understanding of Corporate Finance as a function within certain time-frame and then maybe get into a better role (in this or maybe some other firm). Job begins in another 2 hours time. Lets see how it turns.