I left for 7 years and then returned, ultimately starting my own shop. I've seen those that leave do really well. But I struggled. The longer you spend in the industry, the more you lose key skills that are important outside of the investment industry. And when I ended up in Corp Dev, I discovered that operators with some finance background are more valuable than finance with no ops. Oh, and my diverse knowledge of different industries offered only marginal value. I think it works best if you do it while still an analyst, ideally with narrow sector coverage. Just my 2 cents.
I left for 7 years and then returned, ultimately starting my own shop. I've seen those that leave do really well. But I struggled. The longer you spend in the industry, the more you lose key skills that are important outside of the investment industry. And when I ended up in Corp Dev, I discovered that operators with some finance background are more valuable than finance with no ops. Oh, and my diverse knowledge of different industries offered only marginal value. I think it works best if you do it while still an analyst, ideally with narrow sector coverage. Just my 2 cents.
Thank you for sharing your story. Your two points on: operating with finance exp, and knowledge of different industries are wildly spot on.
I have made similar comments in the following article based on my experience when I was trying to "go corporate": https://richardtoad.substack.com/i/155627122/internal-finance-is-more-like-ib-work