Asset Management vs Corporate Banking

Hi all,

I'm struggling to pick between Asset management or Corporate Banking for a career. As far as I can tell, both work very similar hours. I was wondering which has better salary (people tell me that the asset management salaries get alot higher further up the ladder apparently) and also which has the better exit opportunities. Assume the corporate banking job would be part of the investment banking arm (like JPM, Citi, Scotia etc.) Would love to hear from people already in either areas of work about their experiences.

Cheers.

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It depends.

The question is way too broad. Within CB and AM there are good and bad jobs with their own exit ops. 

CB - if you have the ability to do workout loans, and lending to high yield / distressed borrowers, it's a pretty solid job with great exit opps. To the other extreme, if you're underwriting boring IG loans the exit opps are limited. 

AM - also depends on the role, if you're at a small asset mgt shop analyzing large blue chip companies it may be a pass. If you end up at a top mutual fund (Fido, T Rowe, etc..) it's a completely different story. 

Best of luck! 

 

Do you know about the teams within GSAM with good pay and exit opps? GSAM is so massively big in terms of strategies and also have a few groups that do not hire out of undergrad(GS Growth for example).  Which groups are the best for out of undergrad?

 

Okay, so I applied for everything (like yourself i’m guessing) and got 2 offers. One at a major institutional AM like the ones mentioned and one at a large BB like the ones mentioned. I won’t tell you what offer I took as It’s all down to you as an individual. If your thinking of ever eventually lateraling into IBD then definitely take CIB but trust me I prepared extensively for both and they are two diametrically different roles, especially if we’re assuming an active Investments role at an AM. AM firms nowadays are largely preferring to promote in-house and there can be a stigma to hiring IBD guys whether fair or not. Pay at the junior level for both is fairly even and you can even sometimes end up at the same exit opp places but doing completely different things so keep that in mind.

 

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