Which is a better way to break into investment banking as a more senior role?
Say you didn't do so well in a IB target university in the US/UK, and so got rejected from investment banking, but then ended up being employed at a central bank, and you reapplied later and got an offer from an investment bank's macroeconomic research division.
Would you rather :
1. Gain experience at a Bulge Bracket macroeconomic research division for about three years, quit(obviously assuming that the company doesn't give out temporary leave of absences), leveraging the experience for going into UK master's programs in economics and finance(which school I end up at will depend on the schools' perceived value of the experience), then come back to the same firm at a senior role.
2. Gain experience at a Central Bank, study for LSE credits in order to gain entrance into top UK master's programs in economics and finance, get either a masters then move into finance or get all the way to a phd and then go into a senior economist role at a BB
other options : IMF, WB, stay at the Central Bank, et cetera.
To be frank I recently got option 1 but botched it because everyone else on the team had at least a master's(and the team was very small anyway). I figured I couldn't last for more than five years since that is when you proceed or get out(up-or-out system). Is it understandable that someone would reject a bulge bracket offer? I feel strange having not followed the norm right now. The salary information I got was from someone I'd known but was about equity research, not macro research; how do the salaries really compare between them?
Also, I've heard from phd candidates that academically speaking any experience in investment banking is very different from what you do at school. I was worried I would be formatting powerpoint slides, doing valuation on the side, or mining data without doing much interpretation of the data, which, if true, would mean the master's programs would rather prefer a more academically oriented role in a Central Bank, et cetera.
