From Big 4 Restructuring to Investment Banking: How to Make the Leap

“Help! I hate my accounting job and want to move into banking, what do I do?”

“What group should I transfer to if I want to get into finance?”

“My Big 4 salary doesn’t give me enough cash for bottles!”

If you’re at a Big 4 firm right now, you’ve had one of the thoughts above before – maybe multiple times.

We covered how to move from accounting to investment banking before, but this time around there’s a different twist - an interview with a reader who moved from a Big 4 restructuring group to investment banking.

Here’s how he made the leap, and how you can do the same:

From Cold Call to Closed Deal: How a Private Equity Investment Comes Together, Part 2 – The Deal?

“No, no, and no again,” shouts John, the Founding Partner.

“This is a crap deal in a tiny market with a Founder who wants to leave in 12 months? She stays, or we don’t even take another look at this. This business is worth $0 without her.”

David jumps in before you can say anything.

“We don’t know how serious she is about leaving. And don’t you think the LPs might like seeing a new industry that we haven’t invested in before?”

“Are you crazy?” John blurts out, “The problem is that she doesn’t know what she’s doing, which is much riskier than if we knew for sure, either way. And there’s no way the new Limited Partners will get behind this – they know jack about technology and don’t feel comfortable with the industry.”

“You realize she’s willing to sell at a 50% discount, right? We could still get a solid return.”

“50% of $0 is $0.”

Everyone turns to David, waiting to see what his next retort will be.

From Cold Call to Closed Deal: How a Private Equity Investment Comes Together, Part 1 – The Idea

Your office door creaks open, and you close your YouTube window in a knee-jerk response.

David – the Partner you work with most closely – walks in and glances from side to side, pretending not to notice you at first.

This must be something important if he hasn’t started talking yet.

You tap away on your keyboard while staring at the screen, pretending that you’re writing that important email that you should have sent out yesterday.

Finally, he opens his mouth.

“We need to talk about your performance.”