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Our graduate apprenticeship programme within the coverage and origination team will give you all the skills and support you need to unlock a future in corporate finance that’s packed with opportunities and new experiences. You’ll enjoy a fast-tracked business career that recognises your potential and rewards your ambition.
When you join our team, you’ll enjoy a powerful combination of on-the-job learning and structured training – not to mention an impressive client list to work with. You’ll discover a culture that nurtures individuality and an environment where everyone is supported to reach their potential. With us, you’ll always be moving forward.
What does our coverage and origination (CAO) team do?
Our team is one of the most active corporate finance advisers in the UK, advising on more than 1,000 deals in the past five years. Our national network is broadly split into five distinct teams, one of which is our coverage & origination (CAO) team, encompassing both the PE coverage and M&A origination sub-teams.
Private Equity Coverage
Private equity firms buy companies, make improvements to them, and then sell them on for a higher price, usually after three to five years. The profits are then returned to investors.
Our specialist team builds and manages relationships with the private equity market. We advise on deals, and help other departments across the firm win work from private equity investors and the companies they invest in.
Strong relationships with private equity funds can be highly lucrative. Working on a deal creates an opportunity to secure further work from the company that has been invested in. Our team works in a fast-paced environment, and you’ll need to be ready to compete with accounting firms, investment banks and other specialists to win new work.
Mergers and Acquisitions Origination
RSM’s M&A teams advise private shareholders and management teams that are looking to sell their business, make acquisitions, raise money for growth or carry out a management buy-out. Their work helps ensure our clients secure the best possible deal.
Our specialist origination team works alongside these M&A teams to identify and target the key stakeholders in UK owner managed businesses. We use RSM’s networks and direct targeting to build relationships with growing businesses, likely to require external funding for growth. Working with the M&A teams, we build a pipeline of transaction opportunities and are key to supporting the development of relationships with potential M&A clients.
If successful in being invited to one of our assessment centres, your skills and experience will be assessed through various exercises on the day. Depending on our recruitment requirements at the time, our experienced assessors will select you for either PE coverage or M&A origination.
What can you expect?
At RSM, you’ll be a key member of the CAO and wider corporate finance team from day one. You’ll get the chance to take on a lot of responsibility, gaining practical experience that will help you kick-start your future career.
When you join our team, you’ll help with the development, execution and evaluation of both our private equity and M&A business development strategy. You’ll also track and analyse companies that are up for sale, and those that are preparing to go through a sale process.
With us, you’ll get the chance to fine-tune your research skills. You’ll use proprietary databases to analyse and track private equity funds’ portfolios and investment criteria. You’ll also monitor the private equity work won across the firm, and co-ordinate with other private equity-facing professionals across our regional and international network. This hands-on early experience is invaluable as you take the next steps in your career.
At RSM, you’ll benefit from on-the-job training from more senior members of the team and gain access to our internal training courses that will help you develop in the role, including courses to teach you coverage and origination and corporate finance specific skills. These residential courses give you the opportunity to interact with your peers and learn directly from service line experts within our departments.
When you join this team, you’ll work towards the ACA qualification with the Institute of Chartered Accountants of England and Wales (ICAEW), or your Chartered Accountancy (CA) qualification with the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Scotland (ICAS) or with Chartered Accountants Ireland (CAI).
What we look for
We’re on the lookout for organised graduates with a ‘can-do’ attitude who are prepared to work hard and take on high levels of responsibility. We also look for team players who enjoy interacting with others and are curious about how businesses work. You’ll be working on multiple projects at the same time, so time management and organisational skills are key.
Confidence with numbers and business awareness is a must, but you’ll also need excellent communication skills and be able to forge strong working relationships with people from all backgrounds. Competency in Microsoft Word, Excel and PowerPoint is essential.
If that sounds like you, we know you’ll enjoy being part of our team.
Locations
Our vacancies are subject to change as we recruit on a rolling basis.
For those who perform well across all of the tasks at our virtual assessment centre, should your first geographic preference be unavailable, you will be offered a role in one of our specialist corporate teams in one of our hubs. You may also potentially be offered a role in another department. This would always be discussed with you in the first instance.
Our specialist corporate finance hubs are across the country in our Birmingham, Bristol, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Gatwick, Leeds, London, Manchester, Reading, and Southampton offices.
Flexible Working
At RSM we work hard to create an environment where our people can make a difference - to themselves, their career, their teams, and to the success of our firm and clients. We support all our people to work flexibly, to manage their family and other responsibilities alongside their work commitments; we believe this is key to achieving an inspiring and fulfilling working environment.
Diversity and Inclusion at RSM
At RSM, inclusion and diversity are central to our values. We have an authentic focus on intentional inclusion, enabling our people to feel they can bring their whole self to work and ensuring everyone feels supported, respected and confident to make a valuable contribution.
Our Recruitment Process
Please note, for those who perform well throughout our assessment process, should your first preference be unavailable, you could potentially be offered a role in another location or department. This would always be discussed with you in this instance.
RSM will only take one application into consideration per recruitment cycle. We do not accept multiple applications to different vacancies.
Minimum Qualifications
At RSM, we don't just look for good exam results. We think passion, personality and originality are just as important. You will need:
- 112 UCAS points across 3 A Levels or an equivalent level 3 qualification, or 104 UCAS points across 4 Scottish Highers/Advanced Highers or Irish Leaving Certificate (Higher Level);
- A predicted/obtained honours degree.
Please note, RSM does not accept General Studies, AS levels or the Extended Project Qualification (EPQ).
