Choosing bank OR sector

I'm currently interviewing for two equity research roles.

The first is a Banks Reseearch Associate at one of the top 3 BBs (GS/MS/JPM), while the second is a Transport/Leisure Research Associate at Bank of America/Citi.

I have a background in FIG, so the first role would naturally suit me. However, I want to move to the buyside (L/S specifically) after ~2 years in ER, and I don't want to get stuck in FIG. I would prefer a role in Industrials/Consumer/Tech over FIG any day of the week.

Nothing is done yet, but I am very interested to know what people think. Would you choose the better brand (GS/JPM/MS), or the better sector (where I want to specialise long term in the buyside). I'm based in London for what it's worth.

7 Comments
 

Pick what you prefer. But this is more of an issue if you actually get both offers.

Brand names aren't everything in L/S, but anecdotally my firm/biz dev is wanting to move away from hiring out of ER.

 

I don't know really, was just told by a bizdev person that they're prioritising other profiles for generic outreach. My pod has a pretty established method of hiring and training juniors now, so the generic bizdev stuff is irrelevant to us.

 

For ER as long as you are at one of the bulge brackets, the quality of the analyst matters more than the bank. All the bulges have superstar analysts that are top of sectors and they will hold more weight than the middle of the road analyst in a sector at Goldman. My top two things would be which analyst do I want to work with and what do I want to cover. Bank matters less in ER

 

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