Lateral Opportunities "What would you do?"
Just received 3 offers from STRH, Regions and Fifth Third IBD coverage team. However, I have only been 5 months into my current role as a BB ABL analyst. I was wondering if someone could potentially offer advice and guidance on what would be a good step for me to take. I will be moving to a new city for this job, they are all based in Southeast cities like Atlanta and Charlotte. There's a 15K - 20K pay bump in base and a potential 20k bump in bonus and a 10k signing (on one shop not the other two). I believe COL in Atlanta and Charlotte is cheaper than where I'm living now. This is what I'm risking, I have a great team and manager who have been investing his time to helping me and teaching me. Work life balance is amazing and there's constant exposure in deal flow. If I was going to lateral after one year, I feel pretty confident that I would be able to go to a legit MM like Baird, Blair, Jefferies. I shouldn't have much trouble lateraling internally as well, I would say a 75% chance, given the amount of deals that we do with Lev Fin and FSG coverage team. I'm also worried about how bad the short tenure role at BB ABL will look on my resume, if I'm planning to lateral again after 1 year at STRH, regions and Fifth Third. Let say I slow the process and leave my current role after 7 months and do a 1.5 year gig at the new IBD role, then recruit for a better shop, will my resume get dinged quickly?
BUMP
stay at the BB for at least 2-3 years...the lateral offers you will receive will be much larger down the road.
also, ideally...you laterally transfer within the BB
Do you think it's worth the + $50K comp? I want to recruit for PE after 1 year of analyst in the new IBD role and I understand that if I lateral into a LMM like STRH, my opportunity will be limited. So, I was thinking about lateraling in Jan 2020 when I hit a year. Assuming 3-4 months to transition into the new role, then I will be at the current role for 1.5 years? This way I can potentially end up at a MM or BB analyst start of 2020 and recruit for 2021 PE roles.
This is a no brainer. Lateral and don't look back, monitoring borrowing base certificates and field exams in business capital is not going to get you closer to any desirable finance exit opportunity. I think deep down inside you know this or you wouldn't have started looking around immediately after starting your job.
If your end-game is the buy-side, I think that going to any of those three firms is a poor choice. I dislike the idea of latering twice within such a short period of time. Overall, I think there's greater probability of reaching the buy-side if you wait and look for a better lateral IB opportunity in the next six months.
If you already received 3 offers 5 months in you should keep looking and something better will definitely materialize. I didn't get much traction at all in my lateral process until the 9 to 10 month mark, and then was able to interview at progressively better places. You'd be selling yourself short if you made the move now.
I networked heavily with the SunTrust folks for full time analyst, however there was no opening. I don't think I was considering Regions at all, I just apply to go through the interview experience and practice my interviewing skills. Fifth Third was also through a networking opportunity, the MD had a similar background like mine coming from non-target and they liked my story. Obviously coming from a BB with the best ABL deal flow helped moving into these lower MM firms. However, my biggest concern as noncents stated I'm afraid that these short tenure at various jobs will backfire during recruiting for PE. I'm scare that it will be a automatic ding for spending 7 months at BB ABL - 1.5 year at Low tier MM IBD - 1.5 year at BB/ EB / higher tier MM. The other option that I have is wait for another 7-8 months after bonus payout in Feb to start looking into a lateral opportunity at MM firm or internal BB lateral. Can someone gave me some advice? NPV You're right I understand that ABL is not IB in the end of the day. That's why I started to look for opportunity, however I'm in the best ABL team in the ABL market, so we do a bunch of FSG and Lev Fin deals, I thought that experience might be meant something when recruiting for IB.
I've seen STRH do some fairly sizable deals (>$500MM), at least in the Gov't Services space. I would take that over Fifth Third or Regions (assuming you don't mean BlackArch).
Why are you so focused on a "legit" MM? I'm not sure Blair, for example, has much better exits than STRH. Focus on learning, and not on the sexiest name. I'd go work at STRH for 2 years and then reassess.
To be sure, Blair absolutely does have better exits than STRH
Yes, but it's not like every Blair analyst is exiting to KKR and STRH analysts can't get any PE gigs.
The difference between STRH and Blair is much smaller than the difference between where he is now and STRH. And if he wants a good MM, why doesn't he want a great BB? Following his logic, he could jump to STRH then Blair then somewhere like Citi then GS.
Why do you think you'll be able to land at an MM that is far more competitive the groups you listed? If you are convinced of this, I probably agree that multiple laterals would look suspect. But, the idea of "bird in hand" seems highly applicable in this case.
Suntrust has by far the best brand out of those three (I didn't even know Regions had an IB and I've never seen Fifth Third in any bake off or notable deal), but it will still be an uphill battle recruiting and your options will be limited mostly to SE firms (which may be good with you, but that's where I see most exit).
Upside of Suntrust is also that the combination of BB&T should strengthen its IB platform (in theory).
Thanks everyone for the reply, it's all been very helpful. I feel confident about the move to a Baird, Blair or PJ firm because I had interviews with them during full time analyst recruiting, unfortunately they don't allow early start so I stick with my ABL offer. In my current gig, we work on a lot of sponsor and lev fin deals so, I get to see how the deal process look on the IB side and not just your commercial bank size ABL deals. Some previous analyst was able to get recruited internally by coverage team. However, I don't think I would be able to make the switch to a legit MM firm or internal BB lateral until after bonus in Feb. I also think that STRH offers the most solid gig out of the three. However, the best exit that I have personally seem out of STRH is Roark. Essentially, I want to give myself more geographic options and not limited myself to SE area. Ideally, I would like to do a MM or UMM PE gig before b school. I have already gotten a T15 B school 2+2 offer, so I'm comfortable that I have a good shot in recruiting IB. I think I just want to look for advice to see how I can best position myself for a UMM or even MF if possible prior to B school. This way, I can also try aiming for a MBA business schools">M7 b school. Note: I didn't went to a state school or target school, I went to a private school that is on par with a community college or little better. I'm not sure if this plays into what I should do in deciding my next steps. Thanks for your time guys.
I would just wait it out a little longer if I were you. If you have 3 offers that shows you have a good resume and apparently interview well. There would definitely be better options if you look a little longer. After summer (when most analysts at other banks get bonus) is probably the best time recruit - don't wait till Feb (the bonus $ won't matter at all in the long run).
I assume you aren't in NYC? If you are I would strongly advise against moving to a regional city - you could easily recruit for a spot at better banks like Jefferies, the lower BBs, etc. I think the EB and stronger BBs would be tough but never say never.
Time I don't think is that big of a factor. Being in an ABL group at least shows you are in something tangentially related but no ones going to care if you put a few more ABL deals on your resume.
Thank you. I'm originally from New York and I really don't want to be back in New York living out of a 2k a month bedroom shared. I'm strongly consider staying at where Im currently at or going to Charlotte, LA or Houston. Do you think the lateral recruiting timeline in places like Charlotte, Chicago, LA or Houston are the same as the standard New York recruiting? Do you think that its easier to recruit in New York given that there's more jobs?
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