Have offers at Barclays and Credit Suisse IBD - Which to Take?

I don't know which group I'll land in at either, and I like the culture at both places and either of them would be a great fit. I have no idea how to decide, though.

 

I received the offer after the job cuts were announced. Don't think they are holding back on hiring at all. But the job cuts are not a factor in my decision. Both CS and Barclays are great in terms of fit, exit-opps, etc. It might just come down to a coin toss haha

 
Best Response

I wouldn't be too concerned with a relatively small amount of layoffs - layoffs are simply a part of life in IBD these days. Your experience is going to depend primarily on two things: the group you're placed into and how hard you work, which is probably the most obvious advice, but it's the truest. Assuming you'll be a generalist or assigned a group once you join, pick whichever firm you've had a better experience with through the recruiting process, try to get into the group of your choice, and then bust your ass non-stop for ten weeks.

If you don't have a good experience - and you think this is due to the firm you're at and not a completely reasonable loathing of the investment banking industry and the slow, tortured death spiral BB culture has been in since 2008 - then as long as you have an offer in hand by the end of the summer, you can always try to get hired somewhere else for FT.

 

Go to Barclays. Going to a top ranked credit research department is a great entry to hedge funds - however, make sure your analyst is recognized by II.

The three best fixed income research shops that focus on publishing are BarCap, JP Morgan, and BOA-ML. GS and DB are both very strong though they focus on internal work. However, Credit Suisse is not really top 5 in terms of FI trading nor published research...

 

Know which part of FI research (Rates/Credit/FX/Mortgages)?

Jack: They’re all former investment bankers who were laid off from that economic crisis that Nancy Pelosi caused. They have zero real world skills, but God they work hard. -30 Rock
 

they didn't provide much details except there will be a training and assignments will be handed out after that. that is partly why the decision is difficult..big_unit's post above makes sense that barcap is a top ranked research house and CS doesn't come close. However I am also looking at staying long term whichever firm I choose, and not particularly interested in exiting to hedge funds. So culture, people, 'good place to work' and growth potential matter more than anything else.

 

CS Gaming is based mostly out of LA, with the MDs infrequently in the NY office. Other stuff in LA would be some Sponsors and RE. From what I have heard the LA office works very hard but places very well for PE in particular. CS REGL in NY is a solid group and very good work life balance, but placement is better from the LA office.

Barclays REGL is in NY, I think (but I could be wrong). The only deal I have seen them on recently is Apollo - Diamond but there is probably some other stuff they have done which I haven't caught. Probably a solid group but I don't have any specific info on them

 

Barcap is strong within the DCM space and its fairly easy to focus on products within an specific industry, however I'm not sure about process of lateraling to the coverage side for NYC given my regional office background. No idea about CS. Hope this helps.

Vertical Farming Extraordinare
 

Agree with above poster. BarCap is very strong with DCM. Their ECM made some big moves last year (they're also fourth on the Facebook IPO), so could be interesting. I am not as familiar with their ECM practice as I am with DCM, so I could be entirely wrong, but I do know that DCM there is really strong.

I would conduct some more research on their ECM group. If it isn't as strong as CS, then debt vs equity would perhaps matter in determining which bank to join.

 

I lied I'm bumping one more time. My problem with CS is that an offer within GMSG (cap markets) only allows opportunities within GMSG (cap markets). Meaning if I spent the summer on the cap markets side, decided it wasn't for me, and wanted to go try an industry group, I'd be screwed. At BarCap that isn't the case. Any more thoughts?

 

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