"Backdoors" into IB
So, as I am approaching my last year in uni, I want to make a list of possible “Plan B” career options that can act as stepping stones into investment banking in case I do not land anything right away. I know some of these paths are harder than others, but I am trying to assess how realistic it is to break into IB starting from these roles. Feel free to let me know if there are other pathways.
Big 4 FDD -> Investment Banking
Private Credit -> Leveraged Finance Investment Banking
Equity Research -> IB
RX Consulting -> RX IB
Business Valuation -> IB
I’ve personally seen a good amount of laterals from Valuation and Corporate Banking.
bump, personally know several bankers who have gone this route as well
Ngl if you find a spot in RX Consulting or Private Credit, I don't see why you'd want to transfer to IB
Student here, isn’t RX notoriously crowded now? Wouldn’t that be enough appeal to switch out
Crowded meaning? Distressed investing sure, there's money chasing less deals now, if that's what you mean, but RX consulting I wouldn't really say so...IB is always crowded nowadays, larger classes, more applicants, more churn. RX consulting is crowded at the entry but is small by design so there's less "bloat" I'd argue.
Corporate Development and Management Consulting
Yep. But would say aside from RX CO & CDD/ODD-heavy Mgmt consulting, management consulting will likely require an MBA reset to jump into IB.
How difficult is it to go from a CIB corporate banking group at a large bank to IB coverage at a different bank?
Bump!
Not impossible, usually can do a brand drop + sweat shop uplift. Corporate Banking at say JPM to lower BB IB TMT Sweat Shop
I have seen it happen plenty of times at my bank. Mostly corp banking covering X industry > IB coverage for the same industry, or > DCM.
Sry, but if you somehow get into RX consulting at even a half decent firm, why on earth would you try to jump into IB? Back when I was in college, RX consulting (which admittedly not a lot of ppl knew about to begin with) was seen as the exit career, something that would provide ludicrous pay if you joined the right shops, better WLB and more interesting work than IB, and would let you have a social / family life as well. Most people I know back then did 2 years of levfin / rx IB -> RX consulting or 2 + 2 of IB & PE and then RX consulting. Not sure if the dynamic's changed now.
Ofc, assuming you do get into a decent shop. I think the whole point of this post is to outline every viable path into IB, should you choose to. Big 4 accountancy is commonly discussed on this forum, but I would like to explore and discuss other pathways that are not commonly spoken about.
Ngl, out of the list, I'd take out Rx co and maybe PC. Reason being for PC, it's seen as an exit career, and am not sure how favorably it would be looked upon to move from PC to IB or something, in terms of transferability and whatnot. RX consulting because a couple of years ago sure, but now recruiting is cooked given the massive increased interest. Being totally honest, you could probably land an IB offer easier than an RX consulting offer, given the sheer number of I-banks around, compared to the 100 or so RX co offers in a year.
Big 4 audit
This answer depends on region too. If you’re in Europe, Big 4 FDD gives you pretty good odds to go into IB, harder in the US.
You should put management consulting into this list too, ideally CDD.
Also, best option would be to try going into Big 4 CF, which is effectively LMM IB.
Hmm...cf as in corp fin?
Correct. It gets called different things in different regions/firms (M&A, Corporate Finance, Deals, IB) but they all do the same thing, LMM M&A/sometimes debt advisory too
Just pivoted from Big 4 Management Consulting to IB. Keys to success for me were networking my ass off and hammering industry specific knowledge/technicals.
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