how much of this prestige stuff is bullshit?

i can definately see your concern, Citi BANKER

lol - spot on

Citi is a great company though.

The vault guide's rankings is a good guide as to general perceptions of banks by people in the industry. League tables change yearly, but those in the business know who deserves what respect.

But I agree that prestige should matter less than whether you enjoy what you are doing, and who you are working with. Unfortunately, when dealing with status-chasers, that's a difficult concept to internalise. Personally, I'd rather take a cut in pay and enjoy my work and my life, than busting my ass for people I can't stand, doing work that bores the !#$* out of me. I guess I think on different lines to many, if not most, on this forum.

If you want to take a cut in pay and enjoy your work, go to consulting. Yeah it's true that if you are sticking with your firm in the long run, then it won't matter whether or not your firm has 'prestige' on the street. On the other hand, 'prestige' does matter as most people on this forum talk about, because it's not just general subjective opinions but rather based on observable factors including selectivity, deal flow, and exit opps. If you think about it for a second, it is RETARDED to talk about how prestige does not matter. If I gave you a choice, would you take JPMorgan Los Angeles or JPMorgan New York, UBS LA or UBS NY, Merrill NY or Merril NJ? No brainers - prestige matters.

citibanker:

So everyone here's been talking about which banks are better based on prestige on the vault guide. I think most people here are spouting nonsense and what really matters is the performance of the bank in the business world. All of us here are amateurs spouting garbage. Anyone care to comment?

It's not that we just want to be at the "cool" bank. It's the exit opps. Someone from Greenhill will have an easier time getting into HBS than someone from Piper. Coming from MS M&A will put you at the front of the pack when gunning for those PE interviews that every single analyst wants. And so on.

actually, i'm a second year at Goldman - my Citi name is a ploy to see just how much of this bullshit you buy into.

why would you go to goldman if you don't care about prestige. you'd do Citi over goldman? I don't think so

seriously you fucking poser. who the fuck pretends to be in a better group than they actually are on an anonymous forum. if you want to pretend, at least say something believable.

Be it true or not, what kind of person brands themself "GS" on an anonymous board and pretends not to worry about prestige?

lol zala that was hilarious

The Vault are guides are generally good, but I only read them after I got the job....the thinking behind that being that I wanted to sell what I wanted to sell about myself without any jargon. And they are really NYC focused, and I'll be in London, so they weren't great. But on that note, I was chatting with Vault's head graduate recruiters in Europe, and they seemed like a real nice bunch.

Anyway, like I said, off topic. Just wanted a hard-earned banana, really.

From what I have read and gather over the past few weeks, "prestige" matters to us for 1 simple reason.

We are winners; the people in this industry have spent their entire lives coming first in competitions, competing to high levels and generally feeling superior to everyone else. Naturally, if entering an industry, we aim straight for the top, the best - we are pre-disposed to do so and aspiring to be second is just unimaginable.

That is why, lowly analysts and wannabe analysts spend so much time chatting about prestige, because at 4am at the office, you can take solace in the fact that you are in fact at the best office on the block, and sniff at how annoying it must be for you equivalent at the office accross the street in the 2nd tier.

We have been competing our entire lives, the entry process into this business mirrors that and thus cultivates such a culture; in short, as long as there are league tables, prestige will matter to us.

are the people who work at Wachovia, B of A, etc.

i so agree with iambateman...in my experience, the guys who work for tier 2s and 3s tend to be the guys that knock prestige the most..