Barclays vs RBC
Title says it all. Interested to hear about culture in specific groups (Barclays Industrials, Sponsors) (RBC Tech, C&R), hours and pay.
Read in another post that RBC paid out good bonuses this year, and I know they are typically known to have great culture.
Barclays is known as one of the better BB for having good culture, but that seems to have changed during COVID. Additionally, bonuses last year seem to have been quite low.
Which would you choose if given the option? Is it worth taking a risk on Barclays given they have had subpar bonuses the past couple of years?
Not concerned with exit opportunities.
I’d say Barclays is worth the risk. I still see it as a stronger firm than RBC in both US and London. Bonus are subpar, but I don’t believe it will be a big difference (especially after tax) compared to RBC. The groups you mentioned are quite strong and overall, I think the experience will be better, hence I’d go there.
RBC’s tech group is deplete (two co-heads left and a lot of the group left to SVB). C&R isn’t really a strong group and is small relative to others. At the junior level, you won’t get a technical experience as they outsource even the most basic analytical work. I don’t haven any insight on Barclays, but hope this helps.
RBC has a better culture (they enforce protected Saturdays) but you will get less deal experience.
How does Barclays tech group compare to RBC tech group
RBC’s tech group is weaker than Barclay’s tech group, and more capital markets based as opposed to M&A…not saying you’ll only do M&A at Barclays, but you certainly will get more M&A exposure than you would in RBC’s tech group. RBC’s consumer practice is one of its weaker groups. RBC’s CME group (which focuses on telecom and entertainment) has stronger deal flow than its tech and consumer teams, although Barclays is still stronger overall. RBC culture is probably better, but at the end of the day, banking is still banking, so I’d go with the more respected platform.
I work at RBC and this is spot on. CME gets more flow than Tech at RBC and competes for some big mandates. RBC culture is better in general but Barclays is the overall stronger brand especially globally. If you're a career banker though, RBC can be attractive. Consider it's an incredibly stable, blue chip company; it's stock has returned >50% over 5 years vs minus 10% or so for Barclays. If you've got vested comp, that's a big difference.
Not that close imo, Barclays (especially coverage) is an awesome place to be - I interned there for a summer.
I am biased but I would say 100% Barclays. Have been here for 6+ years and the firm has only gotten stronger across all coverage groups. The culture remains outstanding, I can't think of a better place culture-wise that I have heard from my colleagues. Bonuses are very middle of the road but they are almost all cash so you're not that indexed to our stock. The firm is very committed to the IB franchise and I'm pretty optimistic.
What do bonuses look like for associates?
Can you explain what you mean by culture-wise?
RBC doesn't generate anywhere near the fees Barclays does. Bonuses may have been elevated this year, but no reason to believe they'll be able to sustain higher bonuses in the long run.
Dealfow isn't even close between the two of them
Barclays is a traditional bulge bracket firm and it doesn't really work to compare to RBC. While RBC has boosted their IB efforts drastically for quite a while, Barclays still will win mandates off the sheer face that they are Barclays and you may get more deal exposure there. On the flip-side, RBC definitely pays more in comp but if your goal is to not stay in IB and use it as a stepping stone, then Barcap is probably your best bet. I should say, RBC won't be a poor IB experience by any means and both banks definitely run their business thanks to their balance sheets. What I mean by that is a lot of both their league table credit for M&A is due to their ability to finance deals. It's just that Barclays may likely be the one to get more mandates. But I'm sure this is very group dependent to an extent as well.
It was very interesting to read from Barclays people that the culture is very chill and non-sweaty. I guess as usual, it really comes down to your specific team and relationship with your direct boss. Because a former colleague landed a tech IBD role there and absolutely hated it. And he was a very decent person. He left a year later for CS/MS/GS and told me his boss made his life awful.
So I had always assumed that Barclays was like Nomura, a clear tier lower than the top BBs, but still felt the need to grind their people just because it’s “investment banking” but maybe my friend just had a random jerk boss.
I know for a fact RBC is very relaxed compared to other shops, as I interviewed there first hand. Also, places with a lot of RBS alum, like RBC and Mizuho tend yo be chill places where you just collect your paycheck relatively easily. Those alum tend to be fine acknowledging where they are in the food order and don’t take missing out on lead mandates too seriously. And the best part about that attitude is that they still pay quite well. It’s like the best of both worlds.
I was super disappointed to not get the RBC role and would have definitely taken it. I’m now at a more “prestigious” bank but I know I work way harder for only slightly better comp at best.
Not sure if I'd compare Mizuho to RBC in either london or the US but I I'd agree with everything else.
Isn't RBC's big knock that it rarely takes on M&A mandates, especially in more desired industries like tech? Very financing heavy, no?
Have plenty of other groups with M&A flow, but tech doesn't do much, so that's correct
I spent a year at Barclays before jumping to a buyside shop and only have positives to say about the firm. MD's actually gave a shit about my development, firm is clearly invested in the IB division, and I got to work on some pretty cool transactions as the lead bank.
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