Yes, the origination team could work for those. I don’t think it’s worthwhile to do another Master’s degree if you already finished one and have the PF Associate role now. Master’s degrees are better for candidates with less full-time experience who are trying to make a career change without an MBA.

Thanks Brian.

My role is mainly focusing on portfolio management within the bank. I would have opportunity in the future to move to origination team. Will this works if I want to break into IB/PE/LevFinance?

I also have a masters degree in Finance major in Asset Management (investment). Do you think it is worthwhile to do another masters degree in one of the top universities for a better career opportunity?

Those are all potential options, but you could probably do anything related to lending since PF is basically a lending role but for assets rather than companies. Anything with overlap in IB, such as power/utilities, infrastructure, or even industrials might work. Investment management would be more challenging.

PE could work, but I think you might be more limited to infrastructure PE (search this site for the article). The main point is that you should think about other lending roles as well (real estate, direct lending, mezzanine, etc.), because they may work even if you lack direct experience analyzing entire companies.

I graduated last year 2022, and worked in one of the big four for nearly a yearly and recently landed a job as Project Finance Associate in one of the biggest bank. I am in the lending side.

I am wondering what would be the career exits option after 2-3years?

Personally, I am aiming to move into Private Equity, investment banking or even investment management.

Is it helpful with the experience I would gain in Project Finance from the lending side to transit into those areas I mentioned above?

Thank you in advance!

I don’t think it’s very likely because audit has almost nothing to do with PF. PF is about forward-looking projections and thinking about scenarios for different types of projects and how they might impact the lenders. Audit is backward-looking and based mostly on companies’ historical performance. You normally need to get more debt/equity or transaction-related experience to have a good shot at joining a group like Project Finance. But you might be able to move around internally if your Big 4 firm has a dedicated group.

Thanks for the post. What do you think the likelihood of breaking into Project Finance after audit? I’m thinking of transferring from audit out to project finance at a big 4 (infrastructure advisory group). The thing is it looks like the requirement even at the most junior position requires a functional knowledge of the infrastructure procurement model (i.e., P3). Would like to hear your thoughts on this.

Thanks. There is more of an emphasis on infrastructure and renewables at banks now, but I still think the European and Japanese banks tend to be more into this field than the U.S. firms (but that may have changed – not sure). We have covered related topics more recently if you look at the following articles:

https://mergersandinquisitions.com/infrastructure-private-equity/
https://mergersandinquisitions.com/power-utilities-investment-banking/
https://mergersandinquisitions.com/metals-mining-investment-banking-group/

As for whether or not any of this will solve climate: Well, I’m not sure I want to go down that path, but I am quite skeptical that renewables alone will be the solution due to some basic math issues. But I agree that spending will increase over time.

Thanks! A new version is coming soon…

Cheers