Citi or Centerview for buyside options?
I was a sophomore intern at Citi and got a return offer for my junior summer to do investment banking in NYC office. I recently got an interview at Centerview Partners (NYC) though so I'm not sure if I should just do it and see if I get the offer. My goal is to just go to the buyside and I know centerview has a 3 year analyst program. If anybody could provide any sort of insight/guidance, I'd really appreciate that.
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lol, had to check if this was April 1st. Whom do you think at any buyside firm worth a damn knows Citi and not CVP? Citi is a great bank, no-one's knocking it. CVP is another league.
3 year program could be an advantage... You could do on-cycle 1 year late and actually get some deal experience. That said it is an extra year of banking. If you think you’ll hate banking and want to get out asap go for citi. I would think of it mostly in terms of the time. Pay also. But buyside exit ops both will be very good imo. Think you will be fine either way if you are considering this early post soph IB internship.
Is this a joke? I don't understand where CVP gets the rep for placing poorly to the buyside relative to its other EB peers. It's the much stronger brand here. If you stay the three years, all PE options are on the table, as all headhunters are well aware of the firm. The pay and generalist model is the sweetener.
OP here, do you think there would be a difference in work life balance between citi and cvp? (i.e., spending more time in office as a cvp analyst vs citi analyst)
I don't know tbh as I haven't worked at either firms. I've heard that hours at CVP can rock you at times but that there's no facetime. I would assume that at Citi, as with most BBs, it would depend on the group.
If you think there’s a possibility you would be interested in doing something non PE/HF related after IB or later in your career I’d go with Citi for the better brand name outside of finance but that’s just me
I don't think "better brand name outside of finance" is the same as prestige. Within finance, CVP has a little bit of an edge depending on who you ask, but beyond finance, Citi just gets an "oh okay" and Centerview gets a "no freaking clue" and I honestly don't see much difference between the two. To my non-finance friends, Citi, Wells Fargo and Chase are about the same.
If this was another EB versus CVP, then I'm all ears, but the comp difference here makes it a no brainer to go for CVP. In b4 some BB analyst tries to convince you that the extra annual 70k+ you would earn is marginal in the long-run of "lifetime earnings" or whatever lmao
At an EB but have had friends take GS/MS over EB for brand recognition so its still def possible but citi and cvp no question lmao
CVP has a reputation for placing poorly because of self selection; many of the people who choose to go to CVP are often enthusiastic about banking and aware they are about to enter a program known for encouraging A2A promotes and grooming potential partners, whereas a large chunk of banking analysts at BBs (I'd say ~2/3) intend to leave for PE or a HF, with the other 1/3 often deciding a little later but with a majority leaving. If you're at CVP I would encourage you to consider staying as an A2A (not bottom of the totem pole, pay as high as Apollo's, good culture from what I've heard), but you will not be that limited in exits -- just that the history isn't as long or large in terms of leaving
Agree with most of this but I would argue that Centerview doesn’t have a “reputation for placing poorly” at all. No headhunter or IB professional thinks that - it’s only recirculated around here on WSO.
The reputation is actually partially with HHs, since there is an assumption that the best analysts try and stay at CVP (not always true) as A2As. CVP is also known to not be supportive of recruiting even during second year on-cycle, and will really only help you at the beginning of your third year (basically once you know with reasonable certainty who gets A2A) and so the assumption is often that the weakest analysts leave. Not a fair perception but that sometimes holds true. CVP analysts exit really well but you do see some at random shops a lot of the time
The most negative thing I've heard about about CVP is that there's the clawback you get. But the exits are better on average than Citi teams (except real estate maybe), teams are leaner, and you don't have to deal with angry Revlon lenders.
Really not a huge difference in PE exit ops since your school, gpa, personality will be fixed. I would think about culture and pay.
Go where you enjoy the team the most. 2-3 years of being miserable is not worth any amount of money. Exit opps can be great if you are a well prepared individual at both firms (though tougher team selection at Citi to be in a good group).
No harm in doing the interview. If you get the cvp offer then I guess you risk a re-neg situation with citi but yea cvp is def the better option overall. you'll learn a lot and I heard culture and pay are amazing so can't go wrong w that
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