Transition - M&A Interview in 10 days

Water Cooler Careers
#1

Hi All,

First of all, I would like to thank this forum & its community for all the quality tips and support it provided me to go through the CFA Level II this year.

Like the title said I will have an interview for the position of Analyst, Mergers and Acquisitions and I was hoping to get some feedback based on my goals and aspirations.

The company I would work for would be a North-American public company of about 5,000 employees and a market cap of about 2-4B. Part of the Global Group of that company, I would operate in a team of 3 (1 VP, 1 manager, 1 analyst). The goal would be to continue global expansion for the company, which is already present globally.

Hours: around 40-50

Pay: 75,000 bonus included

My career objectives: 1) , 2) 3) Challenge & Fun – I do not mind working very hard all my life.

Feels to me like a good way to reach those goals, although hard, would be:

  1. Hedge Fund 2) Portfolio Management 3) Private Equity

My profile: 1.75 years out of college, Senior Analyst in Middle office for a large investment company, CFA Level III candidate.

In the city I reside in, getting a buy-side front office job is very tough, so I’ve had this broader strategy where I would land any front office job, kill it while finishing the CFA, and then move to a finance hub (i.e. Toronto, NYC) through job search or, if all goes well, a Top MBA program. Finally, I would hustle until I feel comfortable to do something on my own.

Any thoughts on the job opportunity for profile and goals?

Thanks All!

#2

Good opportunity, pay is low for that role (unless you’re in a depressed region) and you’re not well qualified against others that would apply for that one. Study up, impress the interviewer and explain why your a star. I’d probably avoid telling him you’re destined for Wall Street. In non-Toronto Canada, that’s about as good and entry level spot as you’ll get into M&A without serious connections or pedigree.

#3

You mind telling me how you got the middle office job? I’m in the same boat: 2 years out of university but haven’t been able to land a finance-related job.

#4

No, pay isn’t low since he said he wasn’t in a major hub, so obv you won’t get NYC wages. but agree that since your experience isn’t directly related, you got to find an edge some otheway

#5

Although I still agree with your comment about my experience, one thing I must precise is that I did a 6 months part-time internship for a small real estate private equity group in undergrad. The reason for part-time is that the partnership ended up falling appart while I was there. So it is hard to sell in terms of experience. The GPs who hired me are credible entrepreneurs though (relatively small but global investments covered in local business newspapers). Also fortunately, my resume demonstrates that I possess all other requirements for the job.

So here’s what I decided to do to compensate for my lack of direct experience:

Company knowledge: I need to know the cie’s current situation (business units, growth prospects, previous acquisitions, business risks, capital structure, etc…). So I’ve been studying their latest annual report. I’ll also speed read the latest 5 annual reports.

Mergers and Acquisitions knowledge: I’ll read the fifth edition of Mergers and Acquisition by Patrick A. Gaughan - and skip irrelevant parts (bankruptcy, and later stage knowledge that I can acquire post offer anyway). I’ve identified about 300 of the 600 pages as being certainly relevant .

Financial Analysis / Valuation: Review the book Valuation by McKinsey & Company - this will go fast as I took a class using it. I’ll also review wall street prep and make sure I can perform all key valuation models required, review formulas, etc…

Pitch Presentations: I’ll go grab a couple pitch presentations from Bloomberg on Monday and analyze them enough to be ready to make one if they assign me a “homework”, which I think is very likely considering my absence of track record.

Fun ahead but Yep… I’ll be busy after work this week. But I still am sure I can improve my plan, so let me know if you can think of anything.

Thanks

#6
#7

Thanks Itera,

I’ll fully dedicate myself to acquiring that knowledge over other’s experience (books) in the 10 days I have.

#8

To answer your question, I talked to friends who were successful, looked at people on LinkedIn for months, read about successful analysts in the field and ended up being convinced that success comes from 3 simple key success factors(KSF):

  • Education

track record

  • Career track record (or any job if you are not yet in your field)

  • Extra-curricular

track record

So I worked hard to develop those.

Up until 1.25 years before graduation my personal accomplishments had been quite unorthodox - somewhat interesting and successful but ambiguous. As I got more serious about finance and school I took a hit realizing how much behind I was and how my profile was not marketable for finance. For a start my GPA was not good enough to get in the front office. I also had no extra-curricular or internships. But as I valued the career prospects that finance seemed to offer I decided to play the game, not waste one minute, and take every opportunity I could grab to develop the above 3 KSFs. Through sustained efforts and patience my profile started taking shape and became increasingly credible.

After graduation, I applied, and made sure that I did all I could to present myself in the best possible light. How not to after all that work?

I am still very serious in applying that model of 3 KSFs today.

Best of luck,

C.

#9

You da best ksf

#10

In your opinion, what are some proven methods of improving the extra curricular KSF that you mentioned?

#11

Depends where you live but in Canada you can get involved and seek leadership positions in the YCIF or well reputated Young Chambers of Commerce.

You can also join non-profit boards relatively easily. Where I’m from you can use a website to find open board positions. There are also placement agents that help you. If you feel like it you can also take a Board class given by some universities - some which then leads to a recruiting even where plenty of non-profit come to recruit and placement is great.

You can also advise startups for things like capital raising but that’s the kind of thing which you end up doing after some more experience or contacts… the kind of things chambers of commerce and board can help greatly.

Hope it helps

#12

^Thanks. I will try to find some sort of outside organization where I can run for president or treasurer or something

#13

I’ll check out YCIF and YCoC.

What website do you go to to find open board positions? Where in Canada do you live?