Senior M&A professionals don’t often get asked what they wish they’d known at the start. When they do, the answers tend to be more practical, and more honest, than the advice you’ll find anywhere else.
We sat down with four professionals working across M&A advisory, investment banking and cross-border transactions and asked them how to break into the industry and build a career once you’re in. Here’s what they told us.
Jake Foley is a former MD at Houlihan Lokey whose 30-year career has also included stints at Morgan Stanley, Bank of America and Deutsche Bank. When he talks about starting out in finance, he doesn’t focus on deal experience or technical skills. He starts with something most candidates forget to consider.
“It’s not the first five years you’re focused on, it’s the first five minutes you meet everyone you might be working with. Your focus should be on fit and feel.”
Finance is a relationship-focused industry. You’ll spend long hours working under pressure with the same group of people, often across time zones. A firm’s brand name may look good on your resume, but it matters less than whether you can do your best work alongside the people there. If the culture doesn’t feel like a fit during your interview, it won’t improve in a year.
This doesn’t mean you should ignore prestige or opportunity. It means you should also ask yourself if you truly want to be in the room.
Carlos Beltrán González is a VP at Lazard who built his career there and at Alantra. He’s seen how competitive hiring is from the inside. His advice is simple: start engaging before you feel qualified.
“The reality is that there are a lot of applications, and it’s very difficult to filter people based on a resume. The more you engage with people, the more opportunities you have for a diverse set of firms to recommend or refer you.”
At a certain level of competitive candidacy, resumes blur together. Another credential won’t always set you apart. What will is a connection between someone who knows your work and someone making a hiring decision. Referrals move faster and carry more weight than applications alone.
The potentially uncomfortable truth is that the time to build those relationships is not when you need a job. It’s now, months or years before, when there’s no agenda and conversation can flow naturally. In New York, those conversations happen everywhere, if you show up for them.
When asked about the mindset that separates strong early-career candidates from the rest, Jake didn’t hesitate.
“Think about being and thinking like an investor. The rest of it will follow.”
You may be asking what it means to think like an investor. In short, it means looking at every situation, whether it’s a company, deal or sector, and asking the questions an investor would ask. What is this worth? What is the risk? Where is the upside, and under what conditions does that disappear? It means developing a habit of analyzing situations yourself rather than waiting for someone to give you their take.
In investment banking especially, the analysts and associates who stand out early are often the ones already thinking one level above the immediate task. They’re not just thinking about how to build a model. They’re asking what the model is supposed to tell the client and why.
This is a buildable skill, but it starts with a mindset shift. Jake advises you to begin making that shift now, regardless of where you are in your career.
One of the most common dilemmas for early-career professionals is whether to go into consulting or banking. Philipp Krohn, CEO of Alantra Investment Banking, began his career as a strategy consultant with AT Kearney before moving into banking, so his perspective comes from both sides.
“Strategy consulting is great in helping you learn how to solve problems, which is a skill that you’ll need in any type of situation. Investment banking helps you develop a holistic view of a situation. To get a transaction over the finish line, you have to think about it from all sides. The skill set is complementary but different.”
Consulting trains you to diagnose, frame and present a problem. Banking trains you to close one. Neither is better than the other, but understanding what each teaches you lets you make a more intentional choice. Knowing the difference helps you spot what you’re missing and how to fill that gap.
Carlos closed with a point that’s both practical and reassuring.
“M&A and investment banking are very liquid sectors. There are always a lot of opportunities to change firms and change sectors. Don’t feel like you’re necessarily tied to one firm.”
Finance, particularly M&A and advisory, has historically offered more lateral mobility than other industries. Analysts move between boutique firms and large multinationals. Associates rotate between corporate development, private equity and operations roles. Sector specialists move with the market.
Carlos isn’t saying loyalty is irrelevant. He’s saying your first role is a start, not the end. Commit fully wherever you are, build skills, develop relationships, create a track record, and adjust as you learn more about where you want to go.
If you’re thinking about a career in finance in New York City, the MS in Finance at IENYC puts you in direct conversation with professionals like these, in the classroom and in one of the world’s most active deal markets.
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Originally from New Orleans, Louisiana, Ashleigh now calls Madrid, Spain home, where she has built a career shaped by curiosity, creativity, and a lifelong love of languages. Her work grows out of a passion for learning, storytelling, and meaningful cross-cultural connection, with language as the thread that ties it all together.
Her academic journey took her from studying Spanish and French and Secondary Education at the University of Southern Mississippi to graduate studies in Spain, where she completed a Master’s in Spanish at the University of Salamanca and a Master’s in Translation and Interpretation at the University of Alcalá. Along the way, she has worked across classrooms, research projects, and creative spaces, contributing to academic, multilingual, and editorial initiatives that connect language, knowledge, and culture.
