We covered some transfer options out of middle office roles here: https://mergersandinquisitions.com/front-office-middle-office-back-office/

If you can’t move to IB or S&T internally, other options might include going for an MBA or moving to a normal company in a corporate finance-related role. You could also think about aiming for something less competitive than IB / S&T, such as corporate banking or an independent valuation firm or something similar.

The CFA might help a marginal amount if you’re trying to move in from a MO role and prove your technical knowledge / commitment, but I’m not sure it’s the best use of time/resources for this transition.

I don’t know, I think it’s still a bit risky because a Master’s degree is expensive and not necessarily worth it if you’re just doing it to wait for the job market to improve. And then there’s the issue of preparing to apply for the programs and everything that comes with that.

I think if you’re OK with doing a non-IB role for a year, that is a better alternative than a Master’s degree. If you are really interested in financial engineering or something more technical that could lead into quant roles, maybe it would make more sense. But I’m not sure it’s worth it if you’re still mostly focused on IB.

This all makes sense. What do you think about doing a Masters in financial engineering or something else more technical? I can network during the masters program, set myself apart from other grads, and get an extra year for the job market to improve.

Recruiters generally do not work with undergrads because they’re trying to maximize placements, which means focusing on people with the exact full-time work experience they need. I doubt that any large/reputable PE firms use headhunters to hire undergrads because that removes one of the main benefits of hiring undergrads directly: not having to pay commissions to the headhunters (unlike when they recruit IB Analysts for PE roles).

Honestly, I think you’ll just have to do some networking to find these roles because corporate development, corporate finance, and other teams do not use recruiters to the same degree. And if they do, it’s usually to find experienced candidates. The good thing is that response rates also tend to be higher because these people don’t get 10 million students contacting them with terrible emails all the time (not saying everyone is like that, just that many students have poor networking etiquette, which results in low response rates on LinkedIn and email in a lot of cases).

Thanks Brian! Are there any recruiters out there who work with college seniors and might have a better understanding of who’s hiring? I know the PE associate recruiting process largely runs through firms like HSP and CPI. As more PE shops recruit straight from undergrad, I’m curious if any headhunters are starting to work with us and might be able to broaden my network. While I’m mainly thinking for PE, if there’s anything similar for IB/corp dev/etc that’d be great to know too

There are articles on all these topics on the site if you do a search. There is a dedicated corporate development recruiting article, and for the others, there are overview articles that mention recruiting somewhere even if it’s not the main focus.

For anything “corporate,” you can look up the biggest companies in the country and start from the top and work your way down. For corporate banking, it’s pretty much the large/commercial banks and some of the bulge brackets and middle market firms.

You can cold email for these roles, but they’re so much less competitive that people will respond to informational interview requests and LinkedIn more readily.

Technical prep varies widely. Valuation and corporate development are similar to IB. The others are more about accounting with less focus on valuation and transactions.

Thank you, this all makes sense. Disappointment aside, I’m just trying to play my best next move. Do you have any articles on recruiting for corporate banking, valuation, corporate finance, or corporate development?
My recruiting experience is restricted to IB/PE, so I’m not sure how different their processes are. My initial questions would be: 1) How can I get a sense of who the major companies for each of these roles are?, 2) Do I just cold email them like I’ve been doing for IB?, 3) How different are the interviews/do I need to do additional technical prep?, 4) Are there other factors I need to be considering with regards to the overall process? I’d really appreciate any insight you could provide!

If you have already sent 1000 emails and haven’t found any solid leads, then I would suggest moving on for now and aiming for non-IB roles. While you may be disappointed, it is 10x better to win *some* type of finance role post-graduation than to keep going for IB roles only to end up with nothing. And with the way the market is right now, it’s not exactly easy to win offers anywhere.

So, my advice here would be to aim for something like corporate banking (maybe with a FIG focus to match your internship), an independent valuation firm, or potentially even corporate finance at a large financial institution. I think corporate development might be a stretch if you’ve only had 1 boutique IB internship, but some people do mange to win corp dev roles right out of undergrad.

These jobs may not be exactly what you want, but, again, your #1 focus has to be finding a full-time role that is at least somewhat relevant and then planning for a lateral move later on.

You could potentially plan to stay in school via a Master’s degree, but I think that’s a risky option because there’s no guarantee the market will improve by the time you finish, and most of these MSF programs are quite expensive.

After that initial cycle of outreach and interviews (what I considered the on-cycle FT process in September/October), I’ve since been waiting for apps to get posted on Handshake/LinkedIn/job sites/forwarded by my IB club at school, applying to those apps, and then emailing folks in those groups to drop my resume, say I’ve applied, and ask to chat (what I consider the off-cycle process). This process has been slower and the opportunities aren’t exactly what I’m looking for (non-ideal location, smaller firms, more unrelated to IB or PE, and worse exit opps).

I know the best way to get a job is to just email people directly and get my foot in the door. I know that waiting for apps to get posted won’t get me enough interviews and groups may not even post. But I’ve emailed pretty much every bank and buy-side shop (sent ~1000 emails), and now I don’t know who else I could email. If I emailed a firm, asked if they’re hiring, and they said they aren’t, I don’t think it makes sense to email other folks at that firm.

Do you have any advice as to how I can keep recruiting? Is there any better strategy than what I’m currently doing (waiting for apps and emailing when I apply)? Thank you very much for your help!