IB to PB/ PWM

I was recently reading an article where an IB analyst transitions over to PB after a couple of years. I'm a rising junior at Goizueta with a 3.7 and I'm currently considering a career in IB and PB/PWM, but I am leaning more towards IB. Let's say I'm able to get a summer internship and/or a FT offer after graduation in IB, but I end up wanting to move to PB/PWM at some point. Would experience in IB add worth to me as a candidate and how difficult would getting a job in PB/PWM after either a summer internship or a couple of years as an IB analyst be?

I've heard a lot of people do the opposite of going from PB/PWM to IB, but I was curious about the other way around.

Also, on another note, I just finished an internship at a brokerage firm for the summer. With the school year approaching, I'm trying to gain an internship at a boutique IB firm mainly through cold calling. However, a friend is trying to set me up with a PWM internship at UBS during which could play out fairly soon. If my goal is an IB SA position, should I take the UBS internship or hold off and try to cold call my way into a boutique firm. Cold calling is not guaranteed though.

I know this is a lot, but any help is greatly appreciated.

23 Comments
 

The boutique will help you much more than the PWM internship for an SA role, mostly due to the nature of the work itself (I assume you'll be doing models at the boutique and cold calling at UBS). And you don't need prior finance experience to go into PWM; a guy during my PWM internship was an Army pilot for 30 years, and another joined the field after a two-year IB stint.

 

Most people that move to PB from some other area of finance move from S&T, but there are some people that have moved from IB. It is a completely different skill set, but it can be done.

I would agree with you, but then we'd both be wrong.
 
rogersterling59

Most people that move to PB from some other area of finance move from S&T, but there are some people that have moved from IB. It is a completely different skill set, but it can be done.

You know it, Roger. I got into advertising because I sold you a fur coat and then you got hammered. Anything is possible.

 

So with that even if I decide to continue to go with IB for a while like up to the associate level as an example would it be harder to transition to PB/PWM than as an analyst? I mean I should know what IB is all about for the most part by that point, I'm just curious.

 

applying to PWM won't hurt you, so you should definitely do it. If you can't get a SA offer doing investment banking (IB boutique > BB PWM IMO), having some finance experience is better than nothing at all.

i don't know what you mean by develop "cold calling skills" if you end up working in PWM, but you will hone some of your financial skills and gain exposure working with clients. while not as rigorous as investment banking, there is definitely some overlap with skills that can help position yourself for full-time positions.

best of luck.

Capitalist
 

I would view private banking as a last resort if you can't find a part-time IB internship. If you're ultimate goal is IB then you should stick with it. Or else you'll get asked why you strayed from IB since Private Banking is entirely different. More client relations than anything else. However if your ultimate objective for PB is the name, then it won't hurt. Just have an explanation as to why PB.

 

Actually fairly common at the mid-senior level, I've met a lot of PWM people who either did stints in IBD or started there and moved to PWM for the lifestyle.

I can't really speak to the skillset or recruiter question too much, but depending where you're at for IBD it might be worth it to internally move to PWM that way. I would imagine most any other job would look at IBD experience favorably.

 

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