Barclays Coverage Groups Ranking
Before placements, I want to know what are the best coverage groups w/ best exit opps as well.
Trending Content - Investment Banking Forum
| +148 | ONLY THESE BANKS OR YOU STRUCK OUT | 38 | 12h |
| +111 | IB Energy Drink Tier List / Ranking | 73 | 1d |
| +61 | Firm Thinks I'm Lying About Offer | 19 | 14h |
| +53 | Indiana University Fraternity Pipelines | 32 | 12h |
| +51 | Feedback for internship first desk at IBD BB - personal fit, "don't be too confident" | 29 | 2d |
| +39 | Stay at Weak Dealflow Team or Lateral? | 12 | 20h |
| +35 | Rogo AI | 14 | 10h |
| +34 | Elite Boutique interview questions | 8 | 23h |
| +30 | Suspended for a Year | 11 | 13h |
| +23 | 1st Half 2026 (1H26) RX IB & RX Co. Rankings | 14 | 1d |
Career Resources
Coverage should be your main goal, and it’s competitive to place in coverage so come off prepared and genuine.
Placement formally starts like a month or two before but is pretty much done around 3 months prior to start date. I’d start having informal chats by January.
I’d suggest avoiding FIG for obvious pigeon-hole reasons, but it’s a strong group.
My rankings in terms of exits: FSG (based on history although last few exits haven’t been great), Healthcare, P&U, Industrials (absolute sweatshop but good deal experience), Tech, Consumer
Echoing above but with a slight reorder and context:
--
Tier 1: Top Coverage
Sponsors: Small SA class (~3) but historically fantastic exits
Healthcare: Probably the most UMM/MF exits on a volume basis (ex. Carlyle, GA, KKR, TPG, THL, WCAS)
Tech: Long hours but solid UMM/MF exits, especially in recent years (ex. Vista, Apax, CVC, GTCR, MDP)
Industrials: Long hours but solid UMM/MF exits, especially in recent years (ex. BX, CD&R, Elliot, Charlesbank, BC Partners)
PU&I: Top group on the street + fantastic infra-PE exits. I know I'm going to get attacked, but unless you want to do climate-tech/infra PE (ex. KKR Infra, TPG Rise Climate, BX Infra) PU&I is not worth the effort during group placement
--
Tier 2: Rest of Coverage
Energy Transition (fka NatRes): Lost a bit of its luster in recent years. Also pigeon holes you pretty hard for exits
Consumer: Just is not as strong from a dealflow/exits perspective. Mostly MM/UMM exits
FIG: Strong but, as said above, super niche and limiting in terms of exits. Mostly MM exits
Communication & Media: Weak dealflow (exclusive sell-side for Verizon-Frontier though wtf). Mostly MM exits
--
Tier 3: Can still muster up an exit
REGAL: Niche, limited exits, limited dealflow
LevFin: At least you would have some hope for exits
M&A: See above. Basically no modeling though because it's done in coverage groups
--
Tier 4: Good Luck
Rest of Product: ECM/DCM, Restructuring, Global Finance Advisory, PCM, LATAM M&A
Spot on. Sponsors is a mess for group placement and hasn't even placed super well recently. PU&I/NatRes are strong but don't do well in generalist PE placement.
If I were OP, I would prioritize Healthcare, Tech, Industrials (in that order)
Pretty accurate, prospect has done his research (or works at the firm). Am in Tier 1 but have seen more decent M&A exits even during the ESG days so curious to see how that holds up in the future.
Would caveat that hours are notoriously long in healthcare, tech, and industrials. Solid dealflow, but lots of new MDs who have no problem cranking you on multiple live deals + pitches as they find their footing.
I think healthcare has turned the page a bit more in terms of turnover - the team has stabilized a bit recently besides Thompson leaving for Lazard. Tech hires have looked great on paper - 2 Goldman MDs, David King from BofA, Singhal from Citi, and Patterson from MS. Similar story from Industrials, who brought in 2 new MDs this week.
Think it should be highlighted how sentiment around Barclays has been around lack of MD quality top to bottom, but I think PU&I, Tech, HC, Industrials, and Sponsors have largely managed to replenish their talent. Same can't be said about other groups, so if OP wants to exit with some solid deal experience, I would stick with those 5 groups to be safe.
As an incoming summer analyst about to go through group placement, what would you recommend to best prep for those networking calls?
Recent years M&A group exits: Carlyle, Vector, WCAS, Hill Path, BC Partners
Historic analyst class size between 2-4, do the math on per capita placement considering Industrials/Healthcare/Tech all have ~10 or 10+ first years
No one at Barclays considers M&A to be remotely on par with the Sponsors/PU&I/HC/Tech/Industrials. Terrible advice given it is an execution/sales group that doesn’t touch any sort of model. Not sure where your exit stats are from or over what time frame, because they do not exit nearly as well as the top coverage groups listed above.
Ageeed here. M&A is nowhere close to
Agreement from me as well -- M&A is all admin and process, no execution. Coverage holds the pen
Healthcare, Industrials, Tech is your safest bet as class sizes are large (think each group takes 8 kids a year)
Would not call it a safe bet at all. Industrials is a bit more lenient on who they take (~10+ class size with the addition of Chemicals now), but Tech and Healthcare are notoriously picky about what school you were from; very target/high-semi-target heavy (Harvard, Stern, Penn, Cornell, etc.)
Can someone share insights to the analyst experience in LevFin when it comes to hours, culture etc.
it’s less about the exit, assume there would only be credit funds as an option but rather if this is a sustainable team in the long run.
It's a fine group. I don't have any macro insight on where the group stands, but they seem to get a good amount of work. Barclays as a whole is decent in the realm of financing deals (as with alot of BBs). Will note that Barclays LevFin does not model - you will work alongside coverage heavily but they hold pen.
WLB rocks compared to those sweaty coverage groups though
You got any insights in the WLB. If they get that good amount of work its hard to imagine that the WLB will be great as mentioned?
It has historically been a very strong LevFin group on the street, however things have really soured in the past 18 months. Once the "new guard" really started to try and make their mark (starting with the ousting of the former global head of LevFin and promoting a European counterpart to run a US-centric business), many of the core MDs in LevFin left along with the FSG group (which is equally important to the success of the LevFin group).
Mid-levels got shuffled around on verticals they covered (some for 5+ years) because they basically had to turn the group on its head. Sounds like a mess, would avoid.
Just my two cents - doesn’t really matter that much what group you’re in. If you want an offer, you need to put in the work for it. Yall are tripping over rankings when it is way more important how much you study and prepare for interviews
Just my two cents - doesn’t really matter that much what group you’re in. If you want a buy side offer, you need to put in the work for it. Yall are tripping over rankings when it is way more important how much you study and prepare for interviews
Just my two cents - doesn’t really matter that much what group you’re in. If you want a buy side offer, you need to put in the work for it. Yall are tripping over rankings when it is way more important how much you study and prepare for interviews
Just my two cents - doesn’t really matter that much what group you’re in. If you want a buy side offer, you need to put in the work for it. Yall are tripping over rankings when it is way more important how much you study and prepare for interviews
Just my two cents - doesn’t really matter that much what group you’re in. If you want a buy side offer, you need to put in the work for it. Yall are tripping over rankings when it is way more important how much you study and prepare for interviews
Just my two cents - doesn’t really matter that much what group you’re in. If you want a buy side offer, you need to put in the work for it. Yall are tripping over rankings when it is way more important how much you study and prepare for interviews
Dicta repellendus eveniet doloribus cum autem vel dolore. Aperiam et magnam et ullam cupiditate. Voluptate quia et nostrum minus minus blanditiis dicta et.
Totam tempore quis placeat ipsa nam ut necessitatibus. Sapiente nisi et laudantium rerum. Numquam dolorem iste enim officia ut. Odit et odit laborum perferendis.
Ad tempore quas provident dicta autem placeat. Et nulla reiciendis eius ipsa quas enim autem. Maxime cupiditate fugiat earum et vero aut. Laboriosam dolor ut expedita similique accusantium aut quos. Ut in nam quasi nihil minima velit dolor dolor.
See All Comments - 100% Free
WSO depends on everyone being able to pitch in when they know something. Unlock with your email and get bonus: 6 financial modeling lessons free ($199 value)
or Unlock with your social account...
Distinctio laborum alias et quia. Ea eius reiciendis suscipit nostrum. Quaerat quo quia est itaque et repellendus aut.
Molestiae explicabo quae tempore ex dolorem in. Ea provident consequatur dolorem est mollitia ut animi qui. Odit rem ipsum dolore harum. Explicabo at dolor nulla consequuntur distinctio. Cupiditate vel velit consequatur occaecati.
Quo cupiditate voluptas quo et et enim et impedit. Culpa est dicta non. Officia corrupti voluptate dolor reprehenderit perspiciatis et.
Est itaque et adipisci veniam explicabo dignissimos assumenda nostrum. A voluptatem qui accusamus eum fugit omnis laboriosam architecto. Asperiores non a temporibus placeat non.