Best associate opp — GS or CVP?

Underrated perspective +1 sb

Answer is a bit more nuanced than this. Truth is, being successful at both are equally hard in different ways. At both EBs and BBs, the 80/20 rule is true at the senior level, meaning that a minority of the seniors are the actual generators. At an EB, most newly minted seniors rely on being the execution MD / Partner for the few heavy hitters and originate a bit if any of their own fees, as it’s hard to become a trusted advisor when you don’t have other products or a global banking brand behind you. At BBs, getting that MD promote is often just as difficult if not more due to office politics at that level. Furthermore, at most BBs, most MDs are also merely execution MDs. Rather than just supporting senior MDs, they also act as “execution” MDs for the firm, where they are merely the execution lead for the firm’s clients (and most BBs are quite good at making sure that the clients remain the firm’s clients rather than an individual’s clients by staffing 2 or more MDs as primary relationship officers with the client and through other measures). Thus, it is equally hard to become a true originator, and most MDs “originate” little if any fees.

Essentially, most MDs are “execution” MDs across the street rather than very productive originators. At EBs, they support the rainmakers while trying to build out their own relationships. At BBs, they support the rainmakers and the firm primarily while trying to build their own relationships. It’s just that at BBs, the firm provides more resources in “assigning” the firm’s clients to its MDs rather than it being a free for all, but at the end of the day, those clients aren’t the MDs clients. A lot of MDs who jump from BBs to EBs find that out the hard way when they struggle with maintaining their former relationships and bringing deals over (hence why a lot of BB seniors who get poached by EBs actually end up as duds or middling generators).

This is too simplistic and simply not correct. That's my view as someone who's been a senior at both. 

BBs are easier to generate fees at. The phone rings just because of the name. You have more products to sell and can sell multiple products per transaction. While this is great its often just a product of you being a member of that bank. 

In return you'll get paid less than a good fee generator at a top EB (EVR / MOE / LAZ etc)

Far more goes into awarding business than simply brand name. If you take a sponsors transaction for example, it's often dependent on: 

- Relevant sector content and insights

- How looped into the runners and riders you are

- How many sellsides you've shown them In the past year

- How many times you've helped on the buysides

- Have you introduced them to any target C Suite or opened a door for one of their PortCos

If you want to be a mediocre concierge MD then yes being at a BB is easier. However, the true rainmaker often join EBs or start their own shops because that's where the money is if you're any good.

At EBs, it is heavily dependent on the person. At BBs, as everyone has pointed out, there are entire systems and structures in place for up-and-coming directors and junior MDs to plug-and-play into client relationships. Obviously, what they make of those opportunities and relationships is entirely dependent on them, and, as people noted, mediocre BB MDs just remain execution monkeys and never take advantage of the opportunity to build a stronger relationship. However, coverage opportunities are served up to you on a tray. In fact, new seniors at BBs will get handed a clear coverage list and sometimes more vague white space for them to carve out their space further.

At EBs, you will not have any of those opportunities served up to you, unless, by the grace of God, your rainmaker MD / partner decides to hand you a couple of accounts, which almost never happens. You will have to go out and pound the pavement for your own relationships and deals. So it is heavily dependent on whether you have that drive. Luck is also a huge part of making it as a new coverage officer at an EB. You will have to luck into a niche or subsector that is underbanked, where management teams and sponsors are willing to talk to and trust an unproven advisory banker with no cheap balance sheet products to offer them. If you are an exceptional salesman with extraordinary creativity and a client service mentality, you will succeed at either an EB or a BB. But if you are mediocre, you can still make a living as a mediocre coverage MD at a BB, whereas you will never get that opportunity at an EB.

At an EB, you will also have to be flexible. While your sector rainmaker MDs are elephant hunting, you may have to go down market to get started and compete with the MMs, where they have long track records of covering that segment and have strong relationships, whereas you came up executing and providing strategic advisory for your MDs' massive clients. It's a huge uphill battle, but good salesmen sell.

The one benefit at an EB is that there is often a lot of white space at the firm. EB coverage MDs tend to focus on just around a handful of really close big ticket relationships, whereas at a BB, you can bet almost every client of every size in every subsector / vertical is spoken for on someone's coverage list. You will have to make do with the coverage list that you are given (sometimes there is a little bit of white space). At an EB, if you see a real opportunity in a certain segment, you will largely get free reign to go out and make something happen without worrying about stepping on someone's toes. So, it goes back to that scrappy mentality that is needed to succeed coming up as a young coverage banker in an EB.