Do Canadian investment banking seats still exist at the junior level?
Seems pretty desolate these days...
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Quality shitpost
True that.
Last I interviewed for was Barclays in November - that too available due to the poaching.
Canadian banks typically hire in January as bonuses pay out in December.
There are at least 3 junior postings in CDN Energy IB right now (excl. Jefferies who is also actively recruiting in Calgary) and I assume there will be more in the coming days given the bonus cycle.
How bad is it out there? I’m getting a ton of inbounds so feels like it’s pretty dry. How is the market for laterals these days?
Cannot overstate this enough:
absolute shit sandwich
There have been like one posting every ~3 weeks in the past few months for lateral. Couple in CIBC, one in RBC PUI, one in MS and Evr, one in Barclays. All these in the past ~4 months.
For recent grads, there was like one or two.
Looks like Scotia is hiring in Houston
As a Canadian living in the US, Canada has to be the hardest IB market to crack when you look at the talent vs available seats interplay
the latter - didn't want to FW the TN stuff. It's still a good play if you're young; just make sure you marry an American, the clock will likely run out if you try the TN--> change status to H1 (which is a lottery) ---> green card route.
I'm a VP at a Big 5, and the process is generally as follows for any openings:
If I can pick up the phone and call someone I've spoken to before and can vouch for, why would I want to waste 1-2 weeks sifting through resumes and interviewing a bunch of (likely) unqualified candidates? While these options aren't mutually exclusive, sitting on your hands and waiting for a job posting is probably the worst strategy you can take since it's the last resort for banks / you'll be competing with 500+ applicants.
There's been a fair amount of turnover / musical chairs at my bank post bonuses, and we're definitely hiring at the ASO level. You need to take the initiative to daylight these opportunities.
What is the profile of a good Aso candidate? Recent MBA grad with/without IB experience? Or an IB analyst with 2-3 years of experience?
MBA without IB experience will be tough. Generally look for relevant deal experience (sector, transaction size, etc.) as 1st prize. This is my personal view as a coverage banker and may differ from others, but I generally rank candidates as follows (on paper only):
You'll note I place a big emphasis on sector given I cover a fairly niche industry, and as a lateral ASO you won't have 2 years of runway that an analyst would to wrap your head around valuation, key players, sector themes, etc.
I also place little value on MBA / CFA / etc. and also GPA (unless its horrendous) because I've found them to be fairly poor proxies for actual performance on the job.
Bro, no-one responds to cold emails in Canada. How am I supposed to talk??
I have gotten responses and had calls with everyone from analyst to President in EBs in the US, but bankers in Canada don’t respond at all.
Same strategy for emailing with 1% Canadian response rate vs like 50-60% US.
The only Canadian IB interview I had was Barclays that too with a referral from a senior US banker. Reached final round but was the only one with no transaction experience.
Can’t work in the US without sponsorship, so stuck between a rock and a hard place.
There’s always RBC Calgary
.
RBC is the only Canada bank I’d join. Maybe TD too
Also bmo
nice, very condensed list
Why those 3? (Notably “only” applies to half the banks)
Rbc is the top Canadian bank. TD and BMO are good too but TD has much better culture in most groups, and people don’t work crazy hours. Scotia is a great place as well, hours vary by group
So only CIBC is a no-go?
There's nothing wrong with CIBC and don't think it's any weaker a franchise than Scotia. The one I'd highlight as problematic with culture is BMO.
BMO has some great groups, and radioactive shitshows. watch your step
Specifically, which are the "radioactive shitshows"?
FYI to anyone looking, a bunch of roles at RBC opened up, and some other seats at Toronto big 5. Would still refer to the other comment here on how they triage applications
Thank you very much for this. No one seems to reply to cold emails though. Would you have any advice on that regard?
Think about it, there's like 5 jobs postings and there are 1000s interested, maybe 100+ that are actually qualified. The same couple people in that team are going to get bombarded with LinkedIn requests and cold emails while still trying to do their job to not be the next one fired in this environment. People are going to be extremely selecitve in who they reply to because they see so many candidate options.
Where are you seeing these postings? Or do you just know that the spaces are available?
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