How to Break Into Corporate Development and Make Bank Without Selling Your Soul

While other exit opportunities get more attention – it is hard to pass up moving into PE or hedge funds and buying your own country, after all – corporate development presents many attractive benefits, such as having a life and building value for customers rather than destroying the world.

Today we’re going to speak with a reader who works in corporate development at a pre-IPO tech startup (yes, you would know the name) on the West Coast of the US.

Inside, you’ll learn:

• What the recruiting process is like for corporate/business development and related fields.
• What types of people go to work at normal companies, and how to move in from banking/consulting.
• How recruiting might differ at larger companies and non-tech companies.
• How to ask your MD to hook you up with a job without getting fired.

The Investment Banking Cover Letter Template You’ve Been Waiting For

A long time ago I said that we would never post a cover letter template here:

“I was tempted to post a Word template, but I don’t want 5,000 daily visitors to copy it and to start using the same exact cover letter.”

But hey, we already have resume templates that everyone is using, so why not go a step further and give you a cover letter template as well?

Plus, “investment banking cover letter” is one of the top 10 search terms visitors use to find this site – so you must be looking for a template.

The Template & Tutorial

Breaking Into Private Equity from Business Development, Getting Into Finance from the Military, and More Random Questions… Answered

One question I’ve been seeing a lot lately is how to move into finance if you’re not just out of undergraduate or business school – if you’ve been working for some time and have built up a track record and network.

It’s very difficult to make that type of move these days, simply due to the number of unemployed ex-bankers/consultants/other financiers you’re competing with – but that doesn’t mean it’s impossible.

You just have to target the right types of firms and use the right strategy, as we’ll see below.

Moving Into Private Equity / Investment Banking from Business Development