Jessica Brecker is a Deal Guide with Private Equity Primer and has worked in investment banking, private equity, and FP&A. Her attention to detail and level of organization are the envy of several Deal Guides. Her coworkers describe her as hard charging, practical, passionate, and a joy to work with.  We sat down with Jessica to gather her thoughts on navigating a career in mergers & acquisitions (M&A).

Deal Guide: What got you into M&A in the first place?

Jessica: It was the process of elimination for me. Being raised by two CPA’s I was doing debits and credits before I even learned how to read.  However, needing to be a rebellious teenager, accounting was not an option for me as I did not want to follow in my parents’ footsteps. I thought I would be a math teacher, but when my college classes started focusing on the abstract and the null space, I quickly eliminated math as an option as well.  Finance seemed like a natural in between the two, so I gave it a try and it stuck.    

After speaking to a guidance counselor at college, they simply broke down my options in finance as: (1) financial investment management, (2) corporate finance, or (3) investment banking.  The first was not appealing as I had no interest in the potential sales aspect of building a book of business.  So, I aggressively pursued an internship in option two or three and landed one with GE in their Financial Management Program.  While it was a great experience, it made me rule out option two and somehow that left me as a senior in college with only investment banking left to try. I was super aggressive in my interview approach and ecstatic when I was offered an analyst position at Harris William, a boutique M&A firm in Richmond, VA.

Deal Guide: Someone that works with you described you as being competitive, hardworking, and a joy to work with. You frequently hear the first two in M&A, but the third is not always a given. What makes you different?

Jessica: Wow, I appreciate whoever said that and will take it. I have kids now and I am constantly telling them that happiness is a choice.  You can choose to be happy and joyful, or you can choose to suffer and be miserable.  We all have the power within ourselves to make that choice every day. 

I also am a big believer in attacking life to get what you want out of it, not letting life take control and happen to you.  That means I better be darn happy about what I am pushing myself on; after all it was my own choice. I intentionally chose the crazy M&A path, so there is no need to get worked up over late nights or cancelled plans, it was part of what I signed up for. 

Deal Guide: Talk to me about the role of project management in M&A. How important is it?  On average, what percentage of the job is it? Did you know that going into the job?

Jessica: Wait, I was in project management? Kidding. I really had no idea that would be the case.  M&A pushed me to fine tune so many skills I didn’t even know I had. As I mentioned above, I was good at numbers, so finance felt like a natural place to go deep on that skill. However, that was not necessarily the case in M&A. When I began interviewing for private equity jobs after my investment banking analyst program was coming to an end, it was the first time I took a step back and saw all the skills I developed. My written communication was put to the test writing 80–90-page Confidential Information Memorandums (CIM).  My verbal communication was strengthened by making potential buyer phone calls and negotiating Non-Disclosure Agreements (NDAs). I was learning how to research public comparables and transactions and industry positioning. I was fresh out of college and attending pitches, due diligence sessions, management presentations, buyer confirmatory due diligence, and closing celebrations, all sitting at the table with senior deal professionals and management teams.  Oh, and I had maybe three deals going on at a time at various stages, so my own time management had to be 100% just to get by.  How could I not be joyful doing all of this?  Nowhere else out of college could I have had this level of experience and exposure to senior professionals.

So back to your question on project management.  Yes, 100% I also developed the skill of project management.  I had to make sure my own personal work to-dos, and all the constituents relying on my work, was done within the timeframe required by each deal I was staffed on.  How effective I was at it was directly correlated to how much sleep I would be getting each night.  So yes, I would say project management is pretty darn important and the one skill that ties all the others together.

Deal Guide: How did working in investment banking help you in FP&A?

Jessica: M&A helped me thrive in FP&A. I’ll be honest, when I made the transition from M&A to FP&A, I was super nervous.  What I loved about M&A, the adrenaline rush, the responsibility, the exposure, I thought it would all be gone. To be completely honest I thought I would be bored to tears working a 9 to 5.  Lucky for me my experience was the exact opposite of my fears. I went to work for a private equity-backed middle market healthcare company, which crazy enough would go on to become a client of Harris Williams while I was there.  I was the Company’s first FP&A employee, so the need was huge, and the skill set did not currently exist at the company. It was the perfect opportunity for me to institute key performance indicator reporting and work with the management team to make metric-based decisions.  I was able to draw from the breadth of skills I developed and the exposure I had to over a dozen business models during my M&A experience.  I also lead the due diligence efforts from the inside for a dividend recap and eventually the sale of the Company, directly using my M&A skills.  

Deal Guide: What did you wish you knew earlier in your career? 

Jessica: I wish I learned the importance of being organized.  I mentioned earlier about attacking life, well it is pretty hard to attack your workday if you do not know what needs to be done.  It is pretty easy to have nightmares about work when too many details are kept in your head only.  I know I am not the only one in M&A who feels that way.  When I was an analyst one of my senior deal professionals sent me to a buyer diligence meeting – on the wrong day!  As mentioned above when talking about project management, the amount of information and to-dos is endless.  It doesn’t start that way though.  You start with one deal, and you think you can handle it all.  And then more and more gets layered on and before you know it is too late; something slips through the cracks and gets missed or mistakes get made. I had to learn the hard way that organization is critical to success and trial and error as to what organization system is most effective for me.