Any bank besides these is cooked.

First year at a top BB (GS/JPM/MS)... honestly, if you are at banks other than the top BBs and EBs, you are cooked. 

GS, JPM, and MS capture ~35-40% of all US M&A advisory revenue, and Evercore, CVP, and Moelis are probably the only EBs that can compete with the top BBs. These top banks vacuumed up nearly half of the entire industry's M&A fees in 2025, and only the top players have the massive balance sheets required for $20bn+ transactions....

Otherwise, you can go to mid-market or lower-tier banks like Jeff, PWP, or Greenhill, which survive by doing a bunch of small deals to boost their overall fees... pathetic.

On the RX side, banks other than EVR, PJT, CVP, MOE, and LAZ are genuinely cooked. A lot of RX weirdos are glazing their own banks, saying they are better than the ones mentioned. bankers at places like PWP and Jeff should just lateral to A&M for a better exit at this point, or else you are stuck doing pitching work, bunch of UCCs, and endless numbers of shit-quality deals.

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