Business development associate interview questions

• 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.

Walk Me Through Your Resume

Q: Can you tell us about your background and how you got into corporate development?

A: Sure. I was from a non-target university and worked at a middle-market investment bank after graduation, focusing on Internet companies there.

I was promoted to stay on for a 3^rd year, but around that time I was also getting interested in moving on – I stuck around mostly because the economy was in a nosedive and we were just entering a recession at the time.

A few months after that, a company we had worked with before came to my MD and said they were looking for a corporate development Associate, so the MD referred me, I went through the recruiting process there, and had an offer a few weeks later.

I didn’t want to follow the typical PE or HF path, and at this startup I would have a chance to work directly with the CEO and other senior executives and get a much better work-life balance, so I decided to take the offer.

Q: Right, sounds like a good move – you were actually employed throughout an entire recession, which didn’t happen to too many other bankers.

You mentioned “corporate development” just now – terms like “business development,” “corporate strategy,” “corporate development,” and “corporate finance” are lumped in the same category, but how are they different? What do you focus on?

A: It depends on the company, but here’s how I think about the differences:

• Corporate Development: You focus on M&A and acquiring other companies as well as setting up joint venture deals.
• Business Development: It’s less about M&A and acquiring companies / stakes of companies and more about setting up partnerships.
• Corporate Strategy: This is like management consulting, only internal to the company. You focus on planning their big-picture strategy, solving specific operational problems, and competitive analysis.
• Corporate Finance: This is more like FP&A (Financial Planning & Analysis) – you maintain the company’s finances, plan their budget, and make sure all the right controls are in place.

Of those, corporate development is most similar to banking/PE, and corporate strategy is most similar to consulting; corporate finance is closer to accounting or auditing work and you don’t need to understand deals to do it.

My job is a combination of corporate development, business development, and corporate strategy – since it’s a startup you have to do a bit of everything.

Q: Sounds like a good deal, you get to acquire companies and advise the CEO while avoiding all that boring internal budget stuff. Why did you want to do corporate development rather than PE or HF?

A: A couple reasons:

1. I wanted to go to a top business school one day and I could set myself apart by doing something other than the typical “track.”
2. Since I was from a non-target school and didn’t work at a bulge bracket bank, I had almost no chance of getting into the top private equity firms and hedge funds.
3. Corporate development offered a better lifestyle and more responsibility than what you’d get at a typical PE firm or hedge fund – at a lot of those places you’re still an Excel jockey pulling all-nighters.

Even though it’s a startup, the company itself is very well-known and so I also received the benefit of branding by working there.

The downside is that you don’t get paid as well and bonuses are much lower, so if you’re 100% focused on making as much money as possible, you’re better off following the traditional path.

Recruiting

Q: What’s the recruiting process like for corporate development?

A: As I mentioned, my MD recommended me to the VP of Corporate Development at my company and so I got interviews right away without having to go through a resume screen.
Here’s what I went through:

1. After my MD recommended me, the VP of Corporate Development called me to chat and find out more about my background.
2. I did 3 phone interviews before I flew in to meet with the company.
3. On the interview day itself, I met with 10 people across all divisions at the company, from managers and VPs all the way up to the CEO himself.
4. Right after meeting in-person, I heard back fairly quickly and accepted the offer.