Slouching towards Wall Street
February 2, 2011 12:14 PM   Subscribe

Career change time: help me leave my interesting job to become a finance drone!

Background: I got an M.A. in International Relations and have been lucky enough to have jobs I've loved and to have lived in some very cool places. But for various reasons that I won't go into here, it's time to switch course. My current job has inspired in me a very strong interest in development finance and emerging markets, for which I do not really have the relevant skills to excel. I've got decent econ training but finance is a different beast, and the people I've met doing the most interesting and innovative work are those that took the leap from the private sector, especially commercial banking.

Therefore, I want to skill up. My finance chops are not impressive, but an MBA is not an option: I have enough grad school debt to pay off as it is, thanks. I assume the thing to do next is go put in a bit of time at a bank for a few years in order to learn the nuts and bolts. I do not mind moving into a more junior position for a while in order to train (I am 31 and a few years out of grad school). Through my current job, I've managed to get basic training in project finance, accounting, and financial modeling and have become familiar with project finance / corporate finance structures without having worked on any transactions myself. So I can demonstrate a conceptual knowledge but do not have a transactional record to point to.

If I could write my own job description, I'd be working in a junior position on transaction teams doing project finance deals in infrastructure or energy - renewables would be a dream, but I realize beggars can be choosers and those of us coming from non-traditional backgrounds have a lot of ground to make up. Alternatively, sovereign debt in emerging markets could also make sense.

This is all about the knowledge for me, so I'm pretty indifferent to compensation levels and would rather not move to NYC if I don't have to. I'd prefer to work in a smaller rather than larger institution, but assume that there will just be more slots at the big institutions and they would also have the resources and willingness to train their people.

I have a number of pretty dumb questions that I would very much love to ask the hive mind before I start harassing the people in my network:

--How should I approach this job search? If I was coming out of undergrad/MBA, mass campus recruitment would be obvious, and I suspect that's the peer group I'm looking at. But how do I do this as a career change?

--Which banks/firms are active in project finance? Cursory research has pointed to Deutsche Bank, UBS, Credit Suisse and KPMG / EY as well - does that sound right? Any others?

--I say I'm interested in project finance, but where is this function found in the organizational structure of different institutions? Is this really too niche for someone with my background to target?

--Do hiring managers at these places bring on board career-change candidates like me? Is there a difference in this regard between the consultancy firms and the banks? Is my familiarity with emerging markets (though from an economic policy perspective) at all a selling point in my favor?

--Does this just sound like a pipe dream in the current economic climate?

Any general words of wisdom are, of course, more than welcome. And if you can give me any advice that doesn't involve me going back for a business degree, I'd be eternally grateful!
posted by oneaday to Work & Money (8 answers total) 4 users marked this as a favorite
 
Most of the awesome people I've worked with in renewables come from a non-traditional background.
posted by scruss at 12:19 PM on February 2, 2011


It's hard to know what you mean by "project finance."

Are you referring to the internal operations of the bank? Or are you referring to the financing of, say civil engineering projects/other large projects?

The answers that you're looking for will vary greatly depending on what you mean by project finance.
posted by dfriedman at 12:22 PM on February 2, 2011 [1 favorite]


Response by poster: dfriedman:
I meant the latter - financing of large infrastructure or similar projects. I realize it's a pretty specific structure but is something i've been exposed to tangentially in my current line of work. I think corporate finance would probably tick the box as well.
posted by oneaday at 12:28 PM on February 2, 2011


I assume the thing to do next...
I think corporate finance would probably tick the box...

Have you spoken to anyone in the development financing world to base these assumptions on, or is this going from a more general understanding of what the role you want might require?

If the latter, I would absolutely recommend spending some time trying to network and get informational interviews at the sort of places where you want to work. Go through your school's career center or alumni network, friends and family, even cold calls. Corporate finance, a world I've worked with but never in, is a very particular world - and the best way in is still most likely an MBA. If there is another path, people who already do the job you want are the most likely to know it.
posted by mishaps at 1:50 PM on February 2, 2011


One target for informational interviews might be OPIC.
posted by emkelley at 3:59 PM on February 2, 2011


I don't know what the recession has done to this job market, but have you looked at the Corporate Credit training programs at the big banks? I have a B.S. in Finance and an MBA but I still needed the program to advance in banking. ( As it turns out I left banking but that's another story).

There were typically two types of people in the classes, the fresh out of college kids and the slightly older bank employees moving up. Often the kids didn't have a finance background at all. I think you'd be sort of a hybrid and a bank with a big international presence might be intrigued by your background.

This sort of training could lead to multiple opportunities in banking, I'm thinking initially you'd wind up as a Credit Analyst in an International Lending group or something similar.

Oh and you're still really young, probably at the perfect time for a career change. Good Luck.
posted by JohntheContrarian at 4:22 PM on February 2, 2011


Master Excel. Really make it your bitch, VBA programming and all. Everyone at your new job will think you are a wizard.
posted by Jacqueline at 6:04 PM on February 2, 2011 [1 favorite]


There are many people with IR degrees in the project finance trade, many of them with economics or other non-finance work backgrounds. However their degrees are from top schools and their non-corporate experience is similarly elite. Your odds of breaking in aren't great if that's not you, so let's assume that it is you.

You need to assume that you will be working long hours at a big bank in New York under the whip of taskmasters - that's where sell-side project finance jobs, especially first jobs, usually are. Any hint that you want a low-key intro to the business is death; banking is hard core, and those without conventional backgrounds need to be twice as hard.

First steps? The project finance world LOVES to talk about itself and give itself awards. Get to a business library with online or print subscriptions to the trades (Infrastructure Finance, a few others whose names don't come to mind). Start reading about deals and the bank dealmakers. Make lists and LinkedIn your way to be introduced to as many as possible. Don't be shy about your goal - a first-year project finance associate job, starting as if you just got an MBA. Also try to get introduced to any IFC, World Bank, ADB, OPIC or Eximbank (or EU equivalent of the last two) official you can. Hugely important set of relationships with banks.

I'd make a completely wild guess that the total number of US project finance associates hired at the first year level each year across all banks is between 20 and 40; not a huge business, but not requiring lottery winner luck either.
posted by MattD at 8:23 PM on February 2, 2011


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