Capital Markets SA and FT Recruiting

I'm an econ major who will be transferring to a target school for junior year. I've been around a lot of M&A and PE guys but not many capital markets guys. I'm a New Yorker through and through and am honestly fine staying in metro-NYC area and being a career banker. I haven't seen much info on SA and FT recruiting for capital markets. Can anyone elaborate on the process, networking approach, or recruiting timeline? I know recruiting is generally done for 2020 SA and it's hard to go straight to FT (M&A), but is capital markets the same? I really like what capital markets guys do and am interested in the economics of it but haven't seen that much info on this site. Thanks!

4 Comments
 

All of this is for SA:

Capital Markets recruiting is usually done under the umbrella of Investment Banking recruiting (along with LevFin, M&A, and Coverage). Typically you undergo the standard investment banking interviews and later on during group placement ECM and DCM will be among your options for teams to recruit into.

Other banks have their Capital Markets recruiting separate from traditional Investment Banking. I've heard Citi does it this way.

 

I'm actually in a similar spot. Really interested in the market side of things but for S&T that is not quanty BBs are the only place, so capital markets is the perfect blend between the banking and the market oriented side. Unfortunately, there is little separate info or emphasis on cap markets and many places just have it under IBD as just another product group. Because of this and the lack of info, I'm just recruiting like normal for IB and M&A groups and just hoping for the best in terms of picking a group.

If not, I doubt the transition from M&A or an industry group to capital markets is difficult at all. The opposite though does not hold true. (someone feel free to correct me on this, going off assumption).

 
Most Helpful

Citi, JPM, MS, BAML, and GS (Financing) have separate Cap Markets divisions. Evercore (ECM)/Lazard (Capital Structure Advisory) and a couple of MMs also have it separate. From what I've heard, securing a FT spot is just as hard as in IB at the banks that do separate it out.

For the ones that don't separate it out, you have to watch out what Cap Markets you're looking for. Oftentimes ECM/DCM/LevFin sits within IB, while more structured credit stuff (ABS/CDOs/MBS) sits in S&T. Only way to find out is through networking really.

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