Guest comment: Getting out of investment banking and into a corporate

There are plenty of opportunities for corporate finance professionals outside the world of investment banking, says Hannah Goodall, managing director of KHG Partners.

Investment banking is a great career: it's fast-paced, challenging, and incredibly well paid. But it's also demanding, and it can be repetitive and frustrating if you're pitching for a lot of deals that come to nothing.

While the majority of our mandates are with investment banks or private equity firms, every month we help several investment bankers move to a new career in the corporate world. Many of those who move have young families and are fed up with working 15-hour days and seeing little of their children or spouses. Others are fed up with providing external counsel and want to work internally where they can see more of their ideas come to fruition.

Who can make the move? Roles that come up tend to be at a junior or a senior level, with less need from corporate businesses at the mid-ranking levels of seniority. KHG Partners has done a significant amount of work at the final-year analyst and first-year associate level with FTSE 100 or other large listed businesses, but also sees jobs coming up for senior-ranking VPs and junior directors. While at senior level previous sector experience is more of a pre-requisite, at junior level this seems to be much less relevant as long as candidates have the core financial skills.

What will you do at a corporate? If you join at a junior level, you can expect to have significant involvement in financial modelling and other tasks not dissimilar to those you'd be involved in at a bank. If the company is busy in terms of M&A you should gain some valuable in-house corporate finance experience (that can be seen as useful if you move back into the investment banking arena), while most corporate development teams also get involved in other internal financial initiatives and projects. If you join at a more senior level, you can expect to have a more significant role in formulating M&A strategy and to go out looking at potential acquisitions and divestitures.

In both contexts you can expect to be well paid. While sectors like the media still pay relatively badly, big mining and metal companies are increasingly offering base salaries that are on a par with, or exceed banking. For example, we have clients offering a 70k base for three years' experience, and have met junior directors working for corporates with base salaries of between 120k and 200k. If you stay in the corporate world medium term the benefits package, options and equity can start to become more attractive, although your bonus may be less of a proportion of earnings: 10% of salary is standard for junior staff and 40% to 80% is the norm at more senior levels.

In return for a lower bonus, you will, however, get a chance to reclaim your life. It is very, very unlikely that you'll earn 100k as a junior in a corporate; it's also very, very unlikely that you'll still be at your desk at 3am. It's a decision that you will have to make. If you do, you will be setting your career on a different path - towards finance directorship rather than becoming a managing director in a bank. The move may not be irrecoverable, however - any bank will expect you to justify a decision to move out of the industry into the corporate world, but more and more banks are re-hiring people who left to gain experience of working for clients.