Investment Banking Exit Opportunities

However, the compensation may be not as good as that in private equity, and it is a challenge to be promoted since firms make hard distinctions between Partner-track and non-Partner-track positions. Furthermore, the job is quite risky as well, since once you invest into a start-up, you don’t know whether the start-up will yield more money in your pocket or go belly up within a year of time. So play your cards well and go to venture capital market once you have enough money saved up from during your investment banking career.

This options slightly differs from other investment banking exit opportunities since it is not a front-office role. To be more specific, you are no longer working with potential investment companies or partners. With corporate finance career path, your main task is to deal with internal finance, regarding company’s budgeting, internal processes, and financing needs. Chief Financial Officer (CFO) is the end goal of corporate finance career path.

Meanwhile, with Corporate Development, your main task is to work on acquisitions and joint ventures at a company. If you work at a well-known company, you will have many options afterwards: You could go to business school, go back into investment banking, or even go into private equity.

In comparison with PR/HF/AM opportunities, your earnings may be less, yet you will get better working hours and more regular lifestyle. Therefore, if your priority is to get work-life balance and not concern about slower progression up the ladder, then corporate finance would be the best choice.

If you are a junior M&A professional and looking for a better opportunity (senior positions), boutiques bank may attract you. Even senior M&A professionals can choose this for better work-life balance. However, if you are a junior M&A professional, you may need to work harder than you did in your previous bank.

If you are a banker who has experience in consulting before banking, you’re good to go in strategy consulting. Many investment bankers join strategy consulting for the sheer love of strategy. But remember once you choose this option, you wouldn’t be called a banker; rather you will be named as “strategist”. And soon enough you will be able to understand how powerful powerpoint presentations and matrix diagrams are.

Two types of people can choose advisory for large corporates. First of all, you need to be among people who are not bothered about earning less and at the same time want easy work-life can join large corporate. And the second type of people is those who are in the senior position in investment banks and they have already made their money; so they don’t get much bothered about less money, all they want is an easy life. These two types of people should get into advisory for large corporates. Before choosing the corporates there are two things you need to remember. Firstly, you will not get great deals to handle as you did during your M&A banking. Secondly, you will be working in a small team. So choose well and you can have a highly satisfactory career if you are particularly looking for work-life balance.

Specialized Companies If you have specialized knowledge about other industries, then it may be a good option for you to take advantage of your financial knowledge. To be more specific, if you had attended law school, then you may choose to follow your career path as a legal professional. Or if you have a technology background, you are a perfect match for fin-tech opportunities. However, remember that you must be having a strong past in handling different technical kinds of stuff and should have done some serious work in the past. Get a degree from a top-notch university Most investment bankers are MBAs from top-notch universities. Bear in mind that you hardly get to the association position until you complete an MBA degree from a top institute. Once finished, you can so some internship (if needed) and then join a top-investment bank as an associate. However, you should also consider about the opportunity cost (which are two years not working and MBA course tuition) for this option. A writer, why not? It may sound weird, but to ones who enjoy writing, and wants to share his/her experience with knowledge about book marketing, then you could begin your career as a writer where you illustrate your knowledge about this industry. One typical example is Greg Smith with the popular “Why I left Goldman Sachs”. However, the revenue from books maybe not as good as you expected, therefore consider this choice only when you have enough saved money. Above are the best investment banking exit opportunities. To understand more about these chances, as well as to help yourself have the best preparation to win such opportunities, check out “What skills do you need to have the best investment banking exit opportunities?” and “The Myth about Investment Banking Exit Opportunities”.