Is it easy to switch from one part of Investment Bank to another?
Lets say from Health Care to Consumer Retail? or from generalist to oil and gas, etc. Or are you stuck where you're at.
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I'm sure it varies by bank, but I was at a BB and you could not do a major group change prior to two years. By major group change, I mean moving from a product group into coverage. Likewise, I can't recall anyone from my analyst class moving from one coverage team to another within their first two years.
I would assume that the rationale here is that a team doesn't want to spend 6 months educating a new analyst and building them up, only to have them jump ship to a different group. The downside there is that I actually saw good kids leave the bank because they weren't allowed to transfer teams.
Longer term, it's easier to transfer. A significant number of the senior guys that I worked for had typically spent time in more than one area of the bank. That switch would likely take place as an Associate, but I have seen it done as late as Director. Likewise, most banks now have rotation or exchange programs that you can apply for in your third year as an analyst to get you some broader exposure. But if you're thinking about banking as only a short-term career, you will likely stay where you first land.
I would also add that there's always going to be exceptions. For example, I am sure a transfer would have been possible if an MD was really gunning hard to get a particular kid.
Yes and No. The answer to your question is largely firm/group dependent and is based on a horde of factors. Firms like JPM openly promote and encourage mobility, while another BB might not be as supportive. Also, are you a top performer? A top ranked analyst could switch much easier than a low ranked analyst. What are headcount needs? If there isn’t any space in the group it doesn’t matter how good/bad you are. Is the seat a 1st, 2nd, or 3rd year seat? If they want a 3rd year analyst and you’re a 1st year, you are not qualified. Are they considering candidates outside the bank to fill the seat? Most likely yes. Will you take a pay cut if you switch? It’s not unheard of to ask a 2nd year ECM guy/girl to become a 1st year coverage guy/girl if they decide to move over.
Nobody is ever “stuck”. You can go to another bank or even switch to your 2nd or 3rd most desired group.
At my bank only internal moves I know of are after the original 2 years have been completed, with one or two exceptions who switched after training because group needs changed last minute.
I moved from coverage to product after my internship ended by asking HR. I think the fact that I had a good end-of-summer review helped.
Similar to what others have said, the MM that I was an analyst at never did this during an analyst's two years. We had one analyst who stayed on as an associate and switched from an industry group to sponsors, but other than that, I've never seen it happen.
I would respectfully disagree with the notion that groups do not want to re-train an analyst. Unless you are moving between groups with very different modeling structures (e.g. from leveraged finance to FIG), most of the skills needed to be an analyst are directly transferable, and those that are not (i.e. industry knowledge) will only take a short while to pick up. The analyst role is unlike the senior banker role in the sense that analysts are essentially model machines and can really switch with little knew knowledge learning necessary, while senior bankers are sales people who are essentially paid for their industry knowledge, making it much tougher for a senior banker to switch groups.
I think the real reason that analysts never switch groups is rather simple: analysts never ask. Once analysts start in IB, they quickly realize that this who discussion of which group to join that happens so much on WSO is rather meaningless in the grand scheme of things. Plus, depending on the group you're in, your senior bankers might take offense to you asking. If you put a request in to transfer to another group, that new group's MD will 100% of the time ask your current MD about you, and if your MD is unwilling to recommend you, you stay put and now have an MD pissed off at you. I was in a group like that. Asking to switch was a zero-sum game.
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