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Hello Mastercard employees. I have been trying to break into MC for long now.
I have 2 yrs workex post MBA. I have experience in data analysis and consulting. But I don't want to get into consulting anymore. I am looking for analytics roles. Anyone here would be able to DM and guide me on the available options at Mastercard?
Location: Gurgaon
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I welcome opposing views, but I've always considered M&A in house counsel roles to be a drag, both in terms of process and substance. Obviously YMMV depending on company and manager/team, but you're working with corporate development and finance to paper an acquisition or divestiture, which by their nature can be stressful. So the WLB improves (you're not doing as many M&A deals as at a firm and you're farming the annoying work to outside counsel), but only to the extent - you have leadership pressuring you to push the deal forward and sometimes you just don't have control over timing or if the other side is being intentionally (or unintentionally) dumb or difficult to work with. Usually worse wlb than other types of IHC roles, but has higher comp.
Substantively, it's not very interesting imo. The WLB sucks at a law firm but you're developing a very technical skill set that starts to fade when you're in house playing middleman. Admittedly have always been agnostic to deal work, but may be some people's cup of tea. If I had to point to any pros, it's that you're working at a very high level and strategic position with leadership that other lawyers might not have exposure to.
I do M&A in-house supporting a corp dev team. It’s mostly quarterbacking things / explaining concepts to the business / deal strategy with corp dev. I handle a few small deals myself, but for anything large we use outside counsel.
I agree that my substantive drafting skills have probably deteriorated, but TBH I never was that interested in the fine intricacies of an indemnity clause (whether you need a final judgment before payment blah blah blah). Instead now I’m focused more on the “big picture” which I prefer. To each their own.
I’m interviewing for a role like this now. How was your WLB?
Really appreciate this viewpoint. Is there a corporate counsel niche that you think provides a better mix of WLB, comp, upward mobility and interesting work? My background is M&A so I naturally gravitate toward it and think it fit best with that niche, but I’m concerned about it for the reasons you noted.
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Its difficult. usually you have to live with 2 of the 3 in terms of WLB/comp/interesting work. I'd personally choose a generalist role (mix of m&a, commercial, and specialist work like data privacy/employment) to hedge your bets and bring variety. I think that's also the sweet spot with m&a in terms of working on maybe 1, at most 2 deals a year for better WLB (as opposed to being a pure m&a lawyer for a serial acquirer).