Are non-NYC offices easier to get traction?

Definitely. I've noticed the regional offices also tend to be more clanny and wary of outsiders.

I thought I'd make this thread because there are a few offices that only have FT recruiting and no summer analysts.

Exactly this. Take Houston for example which revolves around O&G (no surprise here). From Evercore to Credit Suisse you'll see a pattern of where Analysts are recruited from (i.e. CS - Texas A&M, Simmons & Co - Texas, TPH - Texas,) so coming in from a non-target is very difficult if not impossible.

At least for NYC you are at the epicenter for IB IMO so you have a much more saturated pool of firms to potentially break into.

No top banks in Charlotte? That's funny.

Quaneaser:

Not really, at BBs in those cities there are often times maybe 1-10 analysts per class for the whole IBD division as opposed to 70+ per BB in NYC. They all have strong regional schools which they use to easily pull a small handful of talented people out of (LA - UCLA, Berkeley, Stanford; Chi - Notre Dame, Northwestern, UoC, etc.) so in reality someone from outside the area trying to do what you are suggesting has no advantage. May even be tougher to convince people to pick you over locals who have connections to the area/recruiting channels.

Maybe as you go down a tier (Minneapolis, Charlotte, SLC, etc.) you could see an advantage but they don't really have top banks there to begin with.

you are probably right but I had the opposite personal experience.

Quaneaser:

Maybe as you go down a tier (Minneapolis, Charlotte, SLC, etc.) you could see an advantage but they don't really have top banks there to begin with.

i think all PW offices are regional by their nature.

If you're talking banking, i don't think the cut offs are any different at the analyst level. There may be fewer people competing, but there are also far fewer spots.

Your competition is always relative. It's not like people in Texas have lower GPA's. There will be plenty of UT, SMU, TCU, A&M, Rice etc people with great resumes, along with the one-off kid from Texas who goes to school in the northeast and wants to work in Texas.

Honestly your biggest problem will be the rep of your school I imagine. Most kids who get interviews are going to have ~3.7+ in the analyst ranks, you will need to convince them not to discount yours relative to a candidate from a school with a stronger academic reputation.

Should've probably clarified, I'm not really interested in IBD (would take the offer though), but more into S&T or asset management

Do you think I'd be able to land first rounds? I understand at that point its all up to me

You sound like you go to UT (ATX most likely being Austin), Tech, or A&M. You should be fine with around a 3.7 looking at PWM.

If you are looking at S&T or AM, then managing the investment fund in the fall is going to be more relevant experience than a summer PWM gig. Use the fund investment opportunity to network with alumni in the business and you should be fine.

He doesn't go to UT..."random state school" is very accurate. Or the others you mentioned.

S&T is tough only because there isn't a whole lot of it in TX. Hell, every bank recruits at , even for ny, but the only s&t gigs I've seen are ml commodities. Reach out to some regional offices...primarily in Dallas. (Knight, jefferies, jones, btig, capis)

That is what I had thought. I usually get a lot of questions about why NYC coming from where I am so I figured it was a good question.

I mean usually you'll get the chance to say your location preferences before the interview when applying

Regional offices usually rely heavily on their own recruiting process to get candidates. They typically get most of their candidates from local colleges. If you listen to New York HR, who will tell you to specify your location preference when you apply through the on-campus process, you will miss out because the timelines are all different. So you need to reach out to alumni in that office or ask a friend in New York to dig around for a contact that you can send your resume to. That said, unless you are specifically interested in tech or energy (Texas), I would encourage you to start off in New York. Unless you know you want to stay in that region, it will be hard for you to move back to the East Coast post-banking for PE and other opportunities (not impossible, but hard).

Kep2412:

Move to Poland, no IBD but more then 7000 BB Middle-Back working places

Care to elaborate?

I mean the general nature of IB whether in NYC or somewhere else is probably the same i'm sure you can expect similar hours, maybe not as intense but comparable

not really, there's much less spots available and you're still competing with Berkeley/Stanford + h/p/w people that want to come back to the west coast

Oh ok thanks. Would you say it's harder or on par with ny?

I had a friend who worked at an office for a top their mm down south. It was harder there because they only had 3 spots and they looked gravely at unc duke Davidson Emory etc.

From what friends have told me it's also very localized in regional offices. In the southern offices, from what I've heard, it's a lot more about having gone to the right state school and having been in the right fraternity than it would be in NYC.

Boutique it'll be easier, but SF is a pretty hot major market.

It'd be different if you meant Houston, Dallas, OKC, etc. Hyper competitive still, but less prestige oriented.

i went through their recruiting process and as someone from an east coast target h/p/w, it was harder than NY

Depends. If you're shooting for Southeast coming from UNC, Duke, UVA, Emory, etc, you will have a much easier time than if you were to come from a northeast target. So many of these firms, and this falls under pretty much all non-NY firms, have local schools that they do most recruiting it and have a huge preference for.