BMO Capital Markets in Chicago vs Wells Fargo in Charlotte

I cannot speak to the difference between BMO and WF, but there is nothing better than Summer in Chicago. Everyone has 5 or 6 months of pent up frustration about the awful weather and they fit a year of good times into May-September. I can't imagine the nightlife in Charlotte comes close.

Summer Associate or Summer Analyst?

I would take the better offer FO > anything. If both offers are FO take the offer in the group that most interests you and is aligned with your talents. If those are the same take the offer from the bank that you think is in the best position to grow just incase they decide to give you a FT offer.

Summer Associate, sorry

Does FO = front office? Yea they are both IB. BMO is a generalist offer for the summer, and Wells does a sell day to choose groups. thanks

You should do your due-diligence about how easy it is to shop around an offer from either WF or BMO for FT recruiting.

I haven't heard good things about BMO - they screwed-over their summer associates from last year and have attained unofficial pariah status at my target school. However, I am not sure if last year was an aberration or the modus-operandi.

The problem with Wells Fargo is that it's not clear that the firm is interested in building-out Wachovia's investment banking business. I might also worry about the inevitable rift between Charlotte and San Francisco.

It's a tough choice and there no clear-cut answer, imho. Just do really extensive due-diligence and don't take your eyes off positioning yourself well for full-time recruiting in September.

Good luck!

Good advice. If the shopping around I'd like to do is going to be in Chicago, do you think being in IB in Chicago (at BMO) might help? If I were trying to get to New York, neither are particularly great for that, but for Chicago, I'm hoping BMO is well enough recognized in the community.

If your ultimate goal is to be in Chicago, then BMO might be a better choice (but that is only contingent on your getting an offer).

In general I would say WF > BMO, but Chicago >>> CLT, so tough choice. Where do you want to be after graduation?

Yea, definitely chicago, at least in the long term. Guess i'm hoping to hear that if I intend to stay in IB in Chicago, that BMO might even be the better choice ultimately -- career wise, not just for my own location preference.

thanks for all that comments

Just what I know about BMO, in Chicago, they are very well known, so if that is where you want to be, why would you go to Charlotte? – which IMO is awful, I interviewed with a different firm there and did not care for it (Charlotte).

BMO hired a bunch of new MD's recently, including several from the BB's (Lehman, DB, ect.). Also, Chicago is BMO's US base (at least for the time being). Don't know much about WF, but if Chicago is where you want to be I would definitely choose BMO.

I'd go with Wells. People I know there have gotten pretty good experiences and been able to move on to P/E or more respected BBs. BMO people seem to have something up their ass (probably pissed they aren't at a bigger shop).