For the first time ever, over 10 weeks (starting right after Thanksgiving) we are releasing comprehensive rankings on investment banks based on community feedback from thousands of submissions to the WSO Company Database.
Besides a general top 30 "overall ranking" which will be released on January 27, 2015, we thought it was more appropriate to dive deeper and pull out some of the rich data to paint a more complete picture about what it’s really like to work and interview at each of these firms.
As such, we will be releasing the following rankings in the following schedule to make sure that we give the WSO Community and the world as complete a picture as possible. Without further ado:
December 2: Career Opportunities. This infographic will contain the following:
- Top 15 Investment Banks for “professional growth”. What banks give you the best experience for you to grow professionally?
- Top 15 Investment Banks for “career advancement”. What banks give you the best shot at advancing your career?
- Top 30 Banks for Intern to Full Time Conversion Rates. What banks hire a high percentage of their intern and summer associate classes into full time analysts and associates? This is important for those lucky souls choosing between a few internship offers.
December 9: Interviews. This infographic will contain the following:
- Top 15 Investment Banks with the hardest interviews.
- Top 15 Investment Banks with the easiest interviews.
- Top 15 Banks with the best overall interview experience. In other words, which banks didn’t treat you like used dog food?
December 16: Promotions & Fairness. This infographic will contain the following:
- Top 15 Investment Banks with the best feedback. What banks are the best at communicating with their junior employees?
- Top 15 Investment Banks with the best recognition. What banks actually give you recognition when you do a good job?
- Top 15 Investment Banks for fairness. What banks give the most fair treatment across employees regarding promotions and in general?
January 6: Compensation. Top 30 Investment Banks for Best Pay. This infographic will contain a simple ranking of the top 30 banks based on the question: “How was your compensation compared with similar jobs elsewhere?”
January 8: Senior Management. This infographic will contain the following:
- Top 15 Investment Banks with the best communication. What banks are the best at communicating important issues and changes?
- Top 15 Investment Banks with the best teamwork. What banks are the best at information and knowledge sharing within the company?
- Top 15 Investment Banks for senior leadership. What banks have the best senior leaders according to their employees?
- Top 15 Investment Banks for senior competence. What banks have the most competent senior leaders according to the employees?
January 13: Prestige & Pride. This infographic will contain the following:
- Top 15 Investment Banks with the most proud employees. What banks have the proudest employees?
- Top 15 Investment Banks with employees that would recommend others as a good place to work.
January 20: Lifestyle. This infographic will contain the following:
- Top 15 Investment Banks with the longest hours. By percentile and avg hours per week.
- Top 15 Investment Banks with the best work-life balance.
- Top 15 Investment Banks with the best vacation policy.
January 27: 2014 Overall Investment Banking Rankings
- Top 30 Investment Banks according to the WSO Community based on thousands of datapoints
January 28 BONUS: 2014 WSO University Power Rankings. Detailed Matrix of The Top 50 Undergraduate institutions for Wall St. Recruiting across all the bulge bracket banks and elite middle market & boutiques.
While no ranking system is perfect, our goal here is to give a bit more insight into what investment banks are providing junior employees with the best work environment and best career advancement opportunities.
All of these percentile rankings are pulled straight from the WSO Company Database, so the reason we asked similar questions/prompts is to show that there is some variability based and how the questions are phrased. We expect these rankings to shift each year as we collect more and more data from each new class of analysts & associates starts.
As always, we encourage you to do more specific company research by checking out the WSO Company Database where you can find thousands of detailed Company Reviews, Interview Insights and specific compensation datapoints across all seniority levels.
Stay tuned and enjoy!
Patrick & the Team
