Hey guys,
Through an odd stroke of luck I got to know a MD stationed on the west coast at a major BB bank. He sent an email to HR in NY and they invited me for a first-round interview. When I talked to the HR lady, she essentially asked me what position I'd like to interview for and said that she would set it up and they would fly me up.
I set up an interview for a position in capital markets but I gave it some thought over the weekend and I'm really interested in two business areas within the firm (capital markets and Corp/Inv Banking). Would it be stupid to call the HR lady back and ask her if I could set up an interview for both positions? The banks that came on-campus to interview at my school said to feel free to interview for more than one spot in the first round and that it wouldn't hurt our candidacy, but I'm worried that if I ask to interview for two positions at an on-site interview I'll appear unfocused and like I don't know what I want to do. For anyone working in the industry, any idea whether it will hurt me if I ask to interview for 2 different spots? Will my interviewers even know, or will they just see that I'm interviewing in their department? I know that this firm hired a good number of their summer analysts so I'd like to maximize my chances of getting hired, but I don't want to jeapordize my shot by applying to two positions.
Thanks, Luke
Definitely interview with both. Nobody expects you to have laser focus right now when it comes to picking between Corp Fin and Capital Markets. Besides, the two are inextricably linked.
ask for both. unlike CF and S&T which are completely different, there's really not too big a distinction between the work responsibilities in CF and CM. you could also tell the HR lady that because the work responsibilities are indeed so similar you'd like to interview for both in order to i) learn more about the differences, and ii) determine where you'd best fit culturally.
Not to split hairs, but the work responsibilities between CF and CM are actually quite different (although to reiterate, the two divisions do work closely together). I've never met anybody in Equity Capital Markets (for example) who has to do a comp sheet, a DCF, or any kind of modeling for that matter. Maybe some accretion / dilution analysis, but minimal brain damage at best. The analysts seem to do mostly Equidesk runs, roadshow schedules, and maybe helping out with the salesforce memo.
When an equity deal launches, ECM is responsible for coordinating with the Company, the salesforce, investors, and the industry group, to actually get the thing done from an underwriting perspective. They effectively are the Chinese Wall here.
But if you're interested in learning valuation, etc. (for lack of a less elitist viewpoint, real "banking"), you will not find it in Capital Markets.
I second that.
The Capital Markets division will have you either in Equity (ECM) or Debt (DCM) and its functions are very different to the I-Bankers even though you're both working togehter and both just as crucial to the transaction and under the same damn roof.
I agree with TireKicker's comments above. I think CF will give you more depth and the valuation skills alone are more respected and long-term they are transferable across IB, PE, Hedge Funds etc. Also, I've been in the same position, where I knew the head of HR North America at JP Morgan and my resume was shared across multiple units at the bank. In retrospect, this wasn't exactly a positive since folks did begin to question where my focus and true interest was etc. Generally, I think it's somewhat easier to get into CM. However, since you seem to have a good contact, i.e. an MD at a BB, work it to get into a position that may otherwise have high barriers to entry, e.g. IB, CF etc. Just my two cents.
It really depends on the bank, but in many banks there are tons more groups within "capital markets" than just DCM/ECM. Derivatives, structured finance, asset backed finance, securitization, leveraged loans, leveraged finance, syndicate, liability management, structured credit products, private placements, CMBS, RMBS, project finance, and the list goes on and on. In a lot of those groups, the modeling is intensive and the work is very intellectually rigorous. I agree that DCM and ECM are pretty limited, but the above post may be referring to cap mkts in the broader sense, which includes a lot of very interesting groups. The skills you learn are also very transferrable and the lifestyle is generally better.
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