Help with decision

Question

I have SA 2019 offers from a MM bank ( think Wells, BNP,RBC, Nomura) for IB and offers from 3 top BBs ( think MS, JPM, GS) for S&T. Ultimate goal is possibly banking . Any advice?  Any strong pick for S&T? Thanks.

buysidebandit · Accepted Answer

Congrats on the offers. If your ultimate goal is IBD, you should sign with the MM bank. Lateraling internally from S&T to IBD is not easy, so you'd probably have to go through full time recruiting which is a crap shoot/coin flip and 100x harder than summer analyst recruiting.

The fact that it's a MM bank and not a BB might bother you, especially considering that undergrads/this forum have a hard on for prestige. But in reality, you'll be getting paid the same amount of money to do the same work, and as long as you perform well, exit opps are the same for the most part.

Disney Disciple · Answer

Well I would assume that you pursued S&T at the BBs since you have S&T offers from three of them even though that's seemingly not really what you want to do and they are unlikely to give you offers elsewhere in the bank with an outstanding offer in one division so if you want to risk it and try to get a BB IB offer you'll need to be realistic about what banks are left.

I agree with the MM thought - as lateralling is high stress and mobility is a lot harder than it is often made out to be.

Entrepreneur Hero · Answer

Is this a generally known thing that upward mobility is faster/easier at an MM bank?

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Help with decision

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