I'm very aware that ops is frowned upon especially on this forum and also that it is far away from being regarded as a "finance" position in the industry.
that being said.. without further due.. ops --> IBD = impossible?
what are your thoughts? possible? does anybody know anyone who has made this transition before?
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Never heard of it. I'm sure it's not impossible but is extremely difficult
I've heard of ops-->S&T before but never heard of ops to IBD. My guess would be the only way in is some serious pull from an MD or other higher-up who will go to bat for you
Definitely possible to get in at a MM (except "elite boutiques" as referred to by this forum, who are just as obnoxious and cookie cutter as MS/JPM). Don't discount MMs and boutiques as many are doing better than the BBs right now. This being said, if you're going to do OPS, then it better be at a well known bank, consulting firm or buyside firm and not some random retail corporation that no one has heard of.
my buddy was in ops this summer and got interviews for S&T, he is a very smart kid and claimed that ops->IBD would be nearly impossible. The issue being is that most of the people that he noticed in ops where trying to move to sell side, he said it was honestly kind of sad to watch these people being in ops for 5+ years continuing to try to break into sell side.
Banks should honestly do what Goldman did and move their Operations functions out west to a nice area like Utah where kids could graduate from the local state schools debt free and live nice lifestyles working for a great company.
Have a year round BB ops internship. Managed to recieve an interview for BB IBD
Anything is possible. That being said, some things are so unlikely that you might as well categorize them as impossible. This is one of those things.
Ive heard of someone doing it, but it wasnt a BB and the ops team worked on the same floor as one of the industry groups, so he hardcore networked and got to know them all then switched after a year
Why the fuck would you ever want to leave Ops for IBD??? Just kidding.
The chances of this happening are probably .01%. With the exception being people who have higher ups pulling for them hardcore, because you will literally have zero transferable skills aside from some Excel and VBA stuff MAYBE. After staying in Ops for 1year+ it will likely be very hard to find work in other areas unless you choose to pursue an MBA or MSF or something.
I don't understand what OP's problem is, if he's talking about switching from ops to IBD at the same firm then yeah .0000000001% chance but if he's talking about moving from firm X OPS to MM firm Y IBD then it's entirely possible and I know kids who made the switch that way.
Talked to an MD in Ops @ BB who's been there for 20+ years now. He said he's seen it done only once in his life.
While you're in an SA postion, HR will want to keep you with the firm so they'll help you get the interview for other divisions. From there it's up to you but you usually don't have a good shot from the start.
Operations to Investment Banking (Originally Posted: 12/16/2007)
Hi, I'm wondering if anyone could offer any advice on how hard it is to make the switch from an operations role to an i-banking role. Right now I plan on getting my MBA while in the operations role and then trying to switch over to an associate position afterwards. Is this switch easy, difficult, possible at all? Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Also, I am interested in how bonus amounts differ in operations from i-banking. I'm guessing the bonus is substantially less, but I haven't found any good info on it.
Bonuses in IB are significantly higher than Ops
Any ideas what to expect? I have accepted a job that I will be starting in June and I'd like to have some kind of idea, but it has been very hard to find information? Is 5k - 10k a reasonable guess? Is this low or high? Thanks for the info.
Comp in operations maxes out at around 60k. You can switch to an associate role if you are coming out of a top 10 business school. Otherwise you can do ibanking at a small middle market bank.
Is that all-in comp? My salary is 55k and I got a 10k signing bonus, so I've already passed that in a way. I was told there's a yearly discretionary bonus, so I imagine I will at least get something. Any ideas what this bonus might be?
ops -> ops -> IB (Originally Posted: 07/18/2007)
Hey all,
been on the hunt for an IB job for quite sometime. Currently work back office at a dealer/broker, and was recently presented with opportunities at a BB in a reporting/controller capacity. I don't want to be doing either jobs, but my questions is, is it even POSSIBLE to go from a middle office analyst job like corporate reporting, or IM controller, into a front office position?
I just want to align myself, but I wouldn't see the point in moving if there's no chance of advancement.
here's my story if interested: http://www.ibankingoasis.com/node/7120
Thanks in advance.
From all that I have heard and read, it is nearly impossible to switch from ops to front office without going to b-school at a top school and re-establishing yourself.
However, I would say that working as a controller may give you some better experience than pure ops. You might be able to leverage it into a CorpFin job with a F500 and then use that experience to eventually work at a BB in the front office.
Can you lateral from Ops to I-banking (Originally Posted: 08/08/2007)
I was talking to an MD who said the best he can do for me is get me an interview as a business analyst. (He said something about it being in the M&A area but was a little vague). He then said that in a year, depending on performance I could become an analyst.
Does anyone have thoughts on this? Have you ever heard of it or do you think its possible?
Thanks
it's possible, but its not easy. I am currently trying to make the move - starting as a business analyst isn't a bad way to do it, but the work isn't directly correlated.
The most important thing is that you have a story behind why you want to make the move AND you have the skill set to make the move. If you have no finance under your belt, and no modeling/valuation experience at all...then the transition becomes much less likely.
Being a business analyst has some positives - you'll be doing analytical work/forecasting, which is more you can say about an ops job, plus you'll be in a position to move internally within the firm, which is huge.
Your other option would be to seek out an IB analyst/internship position at a boutique - they may give you a chance.
Good luck.
Apply to the business analyst thing at the bank you're at. Apply to some front office positions at other banks. Take the best offer. Do you really have anything else? Do not still try to demand you interview for front office at ur current bank.
Well I have already graduated from school and am interning at a hedge fund where I am getting great exposure. I am a biology major but taking a course in financial modeling.
If I had the option of being a business analyst for one year and then trying to move to an analyst role at a BB or doing two years at a boutique which would be more benificial to me/ getting into B school?
Is business analyst a well respected position in general? Right now I'm in between my freshman and sophomore summer and am interning for a fortune 500 company as a business analyst. I was curious if this is a quality position to put on my resume or if it will be over looked in the banking world?
no first hand experience, but my opinion is that anyone who reads your resume later on in banking is going to know what a business analyst...for better or worse. while you can't try and sell it as a position where you did the same things an ibanker does, they know there are common skill sets (to some degree) and that you probably got some relevant experience. besides, as an intern, they just want to see that you went out there and tried to pick something else. no one expects you to be at a BB after freshman year...most of your classmates are sitting on a beach or in their basements fucking around right now.
working in the operations department... (Originally Posted: 08/01/2007)
Hey Im a rising junior at a target school with a good gpa and good extra curriculars.I'm currently interning in the treasury operations departments over at Merrill Lynch. They give me a lot of pretty substantial work to do and a lot of responsibility. just like everyone else on this website i want to do i-banking. Do you'll think working in the operations department this summer will help me get an internship at a BB bank next summer after my junior year. thanks
I know what won't help you get an internship at any bank any summer: copying and pasting the same message into several threads. I don't think that that's part of the skill set required for most IBD groups, but maybe it's useful on the S&T side?
dude i just wanted to make sure that i got some replies cause this is the first time doing this. So i wasnt sure what the response rates were..do you have any advice though?
Well to answer your question, which I'm sure you know the answer to otherwise you wouldn't have taken the internship in the first place, it can't hurt and likely will help in that you have some experience, albeit not ibanking, at a big name bank. Will it get you the future internship? From what I've seen, no; that's more dependent on a lot more than just one summer, but if you have a high gpa, good leadership ECs and interview well, it definitely helps
Also, hopefully you did what you could as far as networking and getting to know people who could possibly push for you when it comes time to interview.
Generally not many people move over from Operations to Investment Banking. If you are a star operations analyst, they might give you a shot at A) Traders Assistant Position B) Finance Position.
the thing is that, the ops department was the only place they were hiring sophomores... So since i just wanted to get into an ibank i took it... The way i saw it is that there are so many sophomores who dont have any experience and this looked pretty good... I was worried about getting one after my junior year..so they're really not moving me over dont you think?
also would it look good if i said that i was so keen on getting into an investment bank that i took the only opportunity i had with the hope of learning anything that would help me in the future.....
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