I recently joined a BB IB, in their back office in the EMEA region - really just to get my foot in the door. Some background - I am 26, graduated with my BA in Finance from a nontarget and previously worked for a MM IB as a Financial Controller before moving to Europe.
My goal has always been to join the front office, either in IB or PE either in a support role at first, get my foot in the door with that group, and maybe step into the deal side of things. I am not totally convinved that I want to work in IB, but always loved working in REPE, and the office I worked at also did a couple company acquisitions while I was there. (Homebuilder/Land Developer). This turned my attention to company acquisitions.
I have heavy accounting experience (of course, being a controller) and then helped work on 2 mergers/sales in my short career.
Question would be - would sitting for the CFA be worth it, if my goal is to get into M&A at some point? Should I instead leverage the fact that I am employed by a BB and potentially be able to shift closer to the deal teams and work my way in from there? (My management is fully supportive of this idea/plan).
I am scheduled for roughly 38-40 hours a week, salary is about $90K USD, 10% bonus and extremely low COL (personally).
I am not interested in going back to school for my MBA. I don't mind the grind for studying for my CFA, though. When I was at the previous bank I was working on a couple roles that put me in direct contact with the deal teams of their PE arm (Financial Controller role within those departments), but I got the opportunity to come to Europe and took advantage.
Should I just network like crazy? From what I've been seeing that's the best bet?
Since you are based in Europe, are 26 years old and already have several years of work experience, breaking into a front office role is gonna be extremely hard and will probably take you at least 10 years.
Maybe you don't want to do an MBA, but since you're in Europe and given your profile you'll easily be able to get into an MSc in Finance at a target in London that will allow you to recruit directly for any career you're interested in (IB/REPE/PE). An MSc is just 1 year long and costs about £30K.
I am in Germany.. What are some of the MSc programs you would recommend? I am also open to other career paths as well, of course. Definitely something lucrative but I am not looking to chase every last dollar to sit in the highest comped roles.
Potentially Corp Finance?
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