How to get hired
Transaction advisory is a cluster of jobs that all revolve around a deal:
- Financial due diligence (FDD): digging through a target company's accounts before someone buys or invests, to find the real earnings, debt-like items and working capital.
- Valuation: estimating what a business, a share, a brand or a financial instrument is worth, for a deal, a regulator, a tax filing or a fund's quarterly report.
- Modelling and deal support: building the financial model, the buyer's business plan, and the numbers behind the deal structure.
- Restructuring and insolvency support: working on stressed companies, often under the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code.
Big 4 firms brand these teams differently (SaT, Deals, Transaction Services, Corporate Finance), so titles like "Associate – SaT" or "Manager – Deals" mean the same family of work.
Newly qualified CAs: the main door
FDD and valuation teams hire heavily from fresh CAs, through ICAI campus placements and through their own articles. A CA who did articleship in a firm's deals or assurance team has the clearest path; others get in with a strong rank, a good audit background and solid Excel modelling. Expect a technical round on adjusted EBITDA, net debt and working capital, a valuation round on DCF and comparable multiples, and a case: here's a summary P&L, what would you ask management?
MBA and CFA route
Corporate finance, valuation and M&A advisory teams also take MBAs from strong campuses, often through campus placement, and value CFA progress. Portfolio valuation teams in global centres (valuing private equity and private credit holdings for US and European funds) hire MBAs, CFA Level II or III candidates and CAs as "Consultant" or "Analyst – Portfolio Valuations". They test DCF mechanics, discount rate build-up, and familiarity with Capital IQ, Bloomberg or PitchBook. See the CFA guide and the MBA Finance guide for the credentials themselves.
The registered valuer route
Valuations required under the Companies Act (preferential allotments, mergers, and other cases) must be done by a valuer registered under section 247 with the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Board of India (IBBI). For the Securities or Financial Assets class, you join a registered valuer organisation, complete its mandatory 50-hour course and pass IBBI's valuation examination (a two-hour multiple-choice paper with case-study questions, 60 out of 100 to pass, and negative marking for wrong answers). Who may sit it depends on the qualification and experience conditions in the Companies (Registered Valuers and Valuation) Rules, 2017; check the current table in IBBI's registration FAQs before you enrol. This route matters if you want to sign valuation reports yourself, typically after several years in a firm.
Moving up
Associate or Analyst, Senior Associate, Assistant Manager, Manager, Associate Director or AVP, Director, Partner. The jumps come at Manager (when you run the workstream) and Director (when you bring in work). After four to six years, common exits are into private equity portfolio roles, investment banking, corporate development teams in large Indian groups, and CFO-track roles in funded startups. The FP&A and corporate finance guide covers the in-house side.
What the work is like
Deals run on the client's timetable, not yours. A due diligence can be two to six weeks of data room requests, management calls and late-night report drafting, followed by a quiet week, followed by another deal. When a deal is about to sign, nights and weekends are normal. Fund valuation teams have a calmer but tighter quarterly cycle tied to the funds' reporting dates.
The work rewards scepticism and clear writing. Your report will be read by a buyer deciding whether to spend crores, so every adjustment needs evidence and every number has to tie. Confidentiality is strict; you may not be able to tell your family which company you are working on.