Haven't been able to find an answer in the forums, so hopefully my question will help future readers:
I'm grateful to be starting a MBA at a M7 this Fall. For quick reference, my career path so far has been Military > Data Science (in academia and public sector) > Big 4 Tech Strategy Consulting. Post-MBA, I plan to become an industry banker in the tech space in the Bay. For the longest time, I read that GS or MS TMT seemed like the way to go, but it seems that the EB's are making big moves in this space in recent years.
Are there significant advantages of choosing one route over the other (EB v BB)? I plan to either stay in banking for 3-4 years and pivot to Growth Equity, or stay for the rest of my career.
This may come across as selfish, but currently, if I decide to stay in banking long term: company culture, client impact (forging deep relationships to drive my clients strategy), salary, and shortest road to MD are important qualities to me
Thank you for your time. WSO has been very helpful in shaping my career
Summering at big bb tech group (MS/GS/JPM).. think the value of being at a huge platform is that you have so many more touch points with clients and can leverage your balance sheet to really start building realationships through other means besides just m&a..seems like my vps have a much easier time meeting clients when they can offer the firm. Just my 2c as an intern.
Easier time as compared to...what?
To OP, I’ll be specific to your question. If your goal is growth equity, being able to “offer the firm” doesn’t mean anything. There’s 10 other banks from GS to Wells “offering the firm” but that doesn’t automatically give you a seat at the table for M&A and other under the tent strategic work. And the strategic work is what matters for growth equity, they don’t want to hear about the Term Loan Bs and Senior Secured Notes you got issued last year. To get strategic deal work, you better have a lot more to talk about than capital markets, your firm better come with market intelligence, actionable ideas and connectivity.
As for fastest progression to MD, it’s 3 years associate, 3/4 years VP, and then ? as a Director/ED/MD (title variance depending on back) before the jump to MD/SMD/Partner. The progression up until Director/ED/MD is pretty straight forward so long as (a) you’re alive, (b) you haven’t burned out and quit, (c) there’s still a lightbulb in between your eyes, (d) you put in some effort and (e) your firm isn’t crumbling. The last jump is a ? because it’s about revenue generation at that point so there’s no categorical answer as to whether EB or BB is faster. I can provide plenty of support and rebuttals for both.
Ultimately it’s about the quality of the platform and deal flow. This is not intended to be a league table debate but GS, MS Q, EVR all have good flow and can provide a good platform for either path. Sure there are other banks I’m missing that the prospects/interns will gladly contribute.
Company culture depends what you like
Pay as a general rule of thumb, if you’re public and big you get paid less (those pesky shareholders!). If you’re public and smaller, you get paid more than public and big. If you’re private then you’re on the fastest path to Scrooge McDuck status.
Client impact, you can do that at any shop, that’s why companies have house bankers, some are BB and some are EB. You just need to be able to offer market intelligence, actionable ideas, execution and a network. Do more than “ offer the firm”, the truth is debt and equity are commodities and pricing/fees is 1/2 the battle for those products.
Great points! Really appreciate the insight. Sounds like, regardless of top bank, go where I can get the most reps early on, and choose a firm that can really bring insights to the market and not just DCM
just saying you get way more touch points being at bb tech platform through all the equity deals..so effectively easier to build relationships than a EB group where you only do m&a..point seems to be reiterated below. Most EB tech groups don't really do much with the big players besides Q.
If you truly want to cover pure tech, go to a BB because most of the touch points in pure tech come from equity fundraising - which of course primarily happen at big banks. Qatalyst is the best tech M&A shop, if you’re focused in M&A. Pure west coast tech is the only area where I would push someone to do a BB over an EB (except maybe Qatalyst) because in almost every other case, you’re going to get a more hands on experience early on at an EB (especially in regards to M&A, where I’ve yet to meet a BB associate who can run a process - but it’s not completely uncommon, though still not the norm, to see an EB associate do so). So I would think about what you want - do you want to cover technology broadly or do you want a more hands on and technical M&A focused experience? If it’s the industry, I would run for GS/MS.
In terms of your other qualities, culture will be specific to the firm (GS is closer to EVR in culture than MS). Pay will be significantly higher at the EB (I’m talking 100s of thousands of dollars over your associate / VP years - if it took you 8-10 years to make MD I would not be surprised if you told me the EB banker made more than 1mm more over that time period). Path to MD will be the same time period at both (banking is hierarchical). And you’re “impact” will be hard to judge, but will depend more on you’re staffing and the specific senior banker(s) you work for than the firm.
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