Corporate Banking recruiting?

Figured I'd put it on this forum since its more similar to IB than any of the other ones. So I'm a sophomore right now and I'm gonna recruit for IB SA roles this spring but I'm also strongly considering corporate banking as well. I have a general idea of what the job actually involves but I can't seem to find a whole lot of information on recruiting. First off, this might sound dumb but what are the actual job titles in CB? A search of "corporate banking analyst" on LinkedIn returns very few results from my school (a large public semi-target) which struck me as kind of odd because I've had no problem finding literally hundreds of alumni in IB to reach out to but I can't seem to find anyone in CB. 

A few more questions:

What does the timeline for recruiting look like? It it similar to IB (2nd semester sophomore year)?

Are these roles MORE or LESS networking-dependent than IB? Do banks tend to have established, large analyst classes each year for these roles or is it less structured?

If anyone here has experience in corporate banking, I'd love to have some light shed on the whole process and any other differences between IB that I should know about.

 
Most Helpful

Hey, happy to answer some of these questions for you. If you're looking to begin a career in the financial services. corporate banking and investment banking are great places to start depending on your preferences. Here's some info on corporate banking based on the questions you listed below.

1. You'll likely find corporate bankers under different titles on LinkedIn because the corporate bank could be housed under different portions, but for the BBs and other large balance sheet banks like BOA, Citi, and Wells Fargo, you'll likely find their info under "CIB Analyst" or "Corporate and Investment Banking Analyst". I know some banks like PNC however, have it under Corporate and Institutional Banking and other banks have it under their commercial banking arm. The names vary, but generally you can expect the above to be standard.

2. The corporate banking world is rather small. In my summer stint, my corporate banking class was around 2x smaller than the investment banking class. But even though classes are smaller, I would say corporate banking is also a necessity for any  large balance sheet bank to have because the portfolio managers are generally the first line of communication between a bank's CIB platform and a large corporate client, connecting them with investment banking side for any capital raises while handling any left-lead mandates and other typical banking functions for large corporates. 

3. Corporate banking recruiting for junior year summer analyst positions start in the spring/summer and early fall of your sophomore year. Diversity is typically earlier as well, so you can expect apps for those to come out in March and superdays to occur in May. Banks like JP Morgan and BOA recruit in the fall. Even though it's not IB, I would say its still a highly competitive process with many applications for a small class. After all, good hours + good money + good exposure. 

4. I would say you definitely still need to network, but the prestige of your university isn't as important. Having connections will def help get your resume past the initial resume drop and into the first round. 

5. My summer analyst class was on the smaller end; across all offices, 5-6 summer analysts per industry group. It's definitely structured with the internship having its own program manager and projects to work on, as well as enough seats for FT positions for the SA depending on performance..

I think joining the corporate banking side is a great way to start your career if you aren't as interested in IB but still want to do banking. Great exposure to modelling (group-dependent), tight-knit classes, learn a lot about company financials, etc. And if you're interested in IB later on, I would say its not too difficult to get the internal transfer as long as you're willing to demote yourself a year in experience and its across the same industry coverage. Hours are generally good, like 50-55  a week with highs being in the 60s when tasked on a live deal and tight window deliverables and lows around 35-40 hours if nothing's going on. Compensation is good as well, with a 85-100k all in comp your first year depending on bank. Good luck with recruiting man, it's always great to find people interested in corporate banking. Hope this was helpful! 

 

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