10 Comments
 

Thanks for the reply!

I’m trying to lateral in to M&A at the moment from deal advisory but obviously the market isn’t great. Do you think it’s worth just trying for it to get my foot in the door or would it impact long term goals if I wanted to move to the buy side at some point

 

Got an offer for a role there but have no other offers on the line - is it possible to say gain 1 years of experience and then lateral out to a MM??

 
Most Helpful

I was in your shoes and had a rude awakening. Anytime you see those private “Mid-Market” M&A shops in Canada 80% of the time they’re small cap advisory businesses for family owned businesses. You’ll be able to call yourself an “investment banking analyst” on paper but you’re just supporting business brokers for 800k- 1M EBITDA businesses. You won’t be doing any accretion/dilution modelling or any public valuation methods for your deals, so the skill sets you’ll gain won’t prepare you for a Big 5.

I’d be wary about going the “I’ll stay here for a year and lateral” way of thinking because we have a ton of these shops in Toronto and I do think interviewers are starting to have an idea of what you’re really doing there. You’d have to have someone really pulling you throughout these processes to get an interview.

I started in this and then was able to lateral through networking to institutional, the learning curve was massive. I was not prepared at all. It made me look back at the work and think it was a joke.

If you can hold out and network I’d do that if your dream is to work at a Big 5 but if you don’t have a job I’d take it and start there.

 

Sint placeat aspernatur officiis. Magni et labore est et mollitia repudiandae eos. Quis nulla tenetur odit ea perferendis. Et voluptate possimus dolores sequi incidunt ut sint. Aut et repellendus modi.

Non earum explicabo dolorem aut. Aut vitae voluptatum explicabo repudiandae. Fugiat voluptate voluptatibus voluptas. Sapiente odit consectetur laborum expedita.

Career Advancement Opportunities

August 2026 Investment Banking

  • Evercore 01 99.4%
  • Moelis & Company 01 98.9%
  • JPMorgan 01 98.3%
  • Morgan Stanley 08 97.8%
  • Goldman Sachs 02 97.2%

Overall Employee Satisfaction

August 2026 Investment Banking

  • Moelis & Company No 99.4%
  • Evercore No 98.9%
  • Morgan Stanley 01 98.3%
  • Banco Santander 02 97.8%
  • BMO Capital Markets 12 97.2%

Professional Growth Opportunities

August 2026 Investment Banking

  • Evercore 01 99.4%
  • Moelis & Company 01 98.9%
  • Morgan Stanley 06 98.3%
  • Goldman Sachs 01 97.8%
  • JPMorgan 01 97.2%

Total Avg Compensation

August 2026 Investment Banking

  • Vice President (16) $429
  • Associates (47) $258
  • 3rd+ Year Analyst (8) $210
  • 2nd Year Analyst (25) $178
  • Intern/Summer Associate (14) $159
  • 1st Year Analyst (83) $151
  • Intern/Summer Analyst (74) $101
notes
16 IB Interviews Notes

“... there’s no excuse to not take advantage of the resources out there available to you. Best value for your $ are the...”

Leaderboard

1
redever's picture
redever
99.2
2
kanon's picture
kanon
99.0
3
BankonBanking's picture
BankonBanking
99.0
4
Secyh62's picture
Secyh62
99.0
5
dosk17's picture
dosk17
98.9
6
CompBanker's picture
CompBanker
98.9
7
GameTheory's picture
GameTheory
98.9
8
DrApeman's picture
DrApeman
98.9
9
Betsy Massar's picture
Betsy Massar
98.9
10
Jamoldo's picture
Jamoldo
98.8
success
From 10 rejections to 1 dream investment banking internship

“... I believe it was the single biggest reason why I ended up with an offer...”