Best Banks for Career Banking
What banks are best for someone planning on making banking a career? How about elite boutique vs buldge bracket?
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Career Resources
Hard question to answer as I think this is largely dependent on how supportive the people on your team are. The natural transition is analyst > associate > VP > MD. Ideally, you want to be in a group where people are collaborative, supportive of your career and social life, and where you have fun. If you put in the hard work and have this support, you;ll shoot up the ranks and have a great career. The challenge is in finding this group.
CVP
I know CVP has the best pay at the junior levels, but do they have a good culture, and are the hours really bad? Also, is the deal flow enough that their MDs make as much as their BB counterparts?
I spoke to an alum there, no face time policy, great mentorship program, wise-range experience from mega M&a, rx, activism defense. Don’t know much about comps at senior level as she was junior but I assume it’s good.
CVP is a myth, doesn't exist.
CVP by a landslide and no I dont work there.
Also, unlike all these other banks, they really groom people to rise through the ranks (couple friends work(ed) there)
GS
I'm going to have to disagree with you here. Everyone knows about the classic "Goldman discount," so choosing it doesn't make sense for an entire career. Goldman is better for buyside exits.
Edit: not my MS
GS discount doesn't exist at MD/Partner level, prospective monkey
Why is this getting MS? GS and MS are hands down the best BBs at long-term retention to the senior banker levels. The vast majority of bankers at MD/Partner are home-grown (as far back as the Analyst class in some cases) vis-a-vis other BBs.
I would say GS/MS, Lazard/CVP/Evercore/PWP and some of the better MMs are probably some of the better banks for long-term careers.
Ducera
observations framed as a question...
for someone with no banking experience wouldn’t the established training pipeline and slightly large teams at a BB serve as a good set of “training wheels” for their career? as opposed to started at an EB and being compared to an A->A who’s done the job for 3 years... and immediately starting out at a disadvantage
it seems like there’s A LOT of movement at the md level at EBs: specifically BB co-heads/heads jumping ship, but also lateral MDs from other EBs.
in my mind this cuts against EBs being a good place to build a career- yes the comp is better than BBs for junior bankers and sure you’ll learn a ton, but isn’t there a world in which you progress to VP in and EB and continually see your prized MD spot get filled by a revolving door of external rainmakers?
surprised no one is discussing mm shops. Comp at a place like Blair/Baird will keep up with BB/EB pay generally (except maybe at top MD levels) but these places are way more into internal promotion. Its also definitely easier to go all the way from analyst to MD at a MM compared to a BB, and if you’re a rockstar you’re going to get promoted faster than at a bigger more corporate place.
this is a great point. only have heard good things about Blair - top tier culture comp and deal flow
the only thing I’d push back on regarding a career at MMs is it def gives you less optionality. yes, you may think you want a career in banking, but later in life if you want to exit banking, MMs probably can’t carry you as far, and the opportunities are probably largely limited to the MM’s region (ie harder to leave Blair and go work west coast).
Agreed- definitely limits your exit ops, but if you are 100% sold on being a banker seems like a solid place to do it. Also their MDs actually do get poached a lot by BB/EBs trying to build out middle market teams, so seems like within banking you actually do have some exit ops.
Tobin & Co hands down
A lot of previous comments have hinted at CVP, Baird, and Blair, which seems to be accurate. If interested, you can use LinkedIn as a resource too. Tenure of senior bankers at their current platform as well as the prevalency of analyst-to-associate promotion will give you an idea of the culture and likelihood of pursuing a career in banking at any one platform.
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