Hey guys,
I recently completed my undergraduate studies and have 2 offers:
1. Big 4 FDD
2. Commercial Banking at a Balance Sheet bank like BNP/StanChart/HSBC
Goal is to break into IB, and any advice on which offer is a more straightforward path to IB would be appreciated
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Also to add, I have previous ECM/DCM internship experience at a large bank, which explicitly stated before the internship began that there are no return offers given to undergrads. I’m in India, and it’s extremely difficult to obtain a full time IB role without an MBA, which I’m not keen on doing immediately
Bump. Need to make the decision by tomorrow. Pros of FDD imo are you work on M&A transactions, although in a reduced capacity vs IB. Pros of Commercial Banking would be that you may be able to move internally within the bank. Would love to hear any other inputs
Assuming it's Big 4, I've seen FDD move into IB more frequently than commercial banking (also assuming here that it's middle market lending as opposed to a corporate banking type group that fits within the commercial bank).
Thank you for your response. You’re right that Commercial Banking in this context means mid-market lending and not Corporate Banking which deals with the largest clients
Did some more research, I’m gonna accept the FDD offer and try to break into IB from there. Commercial Banking seems pretty hard to move out of after speaking to a few people
If goal is IB I would say FDD is a nobrainer
Agree with you now based on my discussions. My thought process was that since I had a Capital Markets internship already, I could potentially move within the bank from Commercial Banking to ECM/DCM, but I think that's still unlikely to happen
If it helps your thought process, I graduated a public university and began a Big 4 FDD job just afterwards. I’ve spent under a year in the practice and recently received a full-time IB offer from an upper end boutique. Definitely possible to make this switch fairly quickly, but do understand the time commitment that will come along with work and recruiting at the same time.
Hope this helps!
Thanks for your input, definitely helps. If I may ask, are you based in the US? I wonder if the move from FDD to IB is more common in the US vs other countries
Yep US based
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