I realized recently that I don’t have a real plan for how I’m going to actually leave corporate strategy when the time comes. I have a decent network from consulting, but it feels stale—most of those people are still in consulting or moved into PE without me, and I wasn’t intentional about maintaining those relationships.
The thing is, I see people around me casually mention “oh, I’m talking to a recruiter at Blackstone” or “a partner at Accel reached out,” and it makes me wonder: are they actually that well-connected, or did they actually do something to make themselves visible to the right people?
I’m not desperate to leave yet, but I also don’t want to wake up six months before I’m ready and realize I’ve got no real pipeline. How are you actually approach networking for your next move when you’re in a corporate strategy role? What actually works?
Networking from corporate strategy is different than from consulting because you’re no longer in “intake mode”—you’re not touching all these companies anymore. The mistake most people make is treating it transactionally: waiting until they’re ready to leave, then reaching out. Instead, I’d recommend building a personal practice around industry participation. Write if you can—internal memos that circulate, external takes on your industry. Speak on panels. Attend the dinners where people who’ve exited are hanging out. Most importantly: every three months, take coffee with someone one step ahead of where you want to be. Not pitching yourself. Just learning. When you’re consistently in that practice for 12+ months, your network becomes genuinely warm, and recruiting conversations become natural, not transactional.
those people you see with random recruiter calls? most of them aren’t actually better networkers, they just got lucky or they know someone who knows someone. the truth is recruiters don’t really cold call unless your resume is exceptional. so either improve your actual credentials or just build real relationships. skip the pretense of “networking.” just talk to people about interesting problems.
Research on lateral hiring shows approximately 60-70% of corporate strategy to PE/startup transitions occur through warm introductions, while 20-25% come through executive recruiters focused on that transition profile. Direct applications account for roughly 10-15%. The implication: building a curated list of 15-20 people (current PE analysts, strategy-to-startup founders, corporate development leaders who exited) and establishing touch cadence—quarterly coffee, relevant articles, substantive questions—yields measurable results over an 18-24 month horizon. Execute this systematically rather than hoping for recruiter inbound.
wait so you’re saying like reach out to random people and just… ask them stuff? that doesn’t feel weird?
I started actually networking for my exit six months before I was ready to move. I made a list of maybe 20 people I had loose connections to—former colleagues, friends of friends, people who did the exit path I wanted. Then I just emailed them with an actual thoughtful question about their transition, not a “let’s grab coffee” vibe. Like, I’d read a case about a company one of them worked on and ask them how they thought about a specific angle. People respond to that. Within like three months, one of those conversations led to an introduction to a partner at my current firm.
You’re way more interesting than you think! People genuinely like helping. Start the conversations now—they compound over time!
also don’t ask people for “advice.” that’s boring. have a actual question about their work or their move. and don’t make it obvious you want something from them immediately. that’s when it gets weird.
ok so like specific questions about their actual work, not like ‘how did you make the jump’ type stuff