How far does BB/EB reputation take you?
Hello monkeys,
it's my first post here since cruising the threads for so long.
I am somewhere between absolutely leaching to become a champion in Investment Banking or jumping off the rat race tracks and doing something more fulfilling with my life. To that end, I want to know how far your first few years in IB at a BB/EB can get you after exiting.
I know of many ex-bankers who leave IB to do something in CorpFin or CorpDev. Leveraging your experience (>2yrs) at a BB must do a lot when interviewing, right? The GS or JPM stamp will forever be on their résumé. And it's so impactful.
But is that stamp enough to employ them in any industry they want (meaning related, excluding PE/VC/HF)? Can they do job hopping with extended periods of traveling in-between (>2months)? Can they ever return to IB at a later stage in their life?
Of course exiting also means to give up on a six figure salary. But that in turn is just another sacrifice for more freedom. And I find that freedom very fulfilling. My question is just: is it feasible?
On a quick note, IB is more or less just a cash grab for me after college. I invest time and effort to get where I want to be. But I'm never going to stay until VP/MD and let my health deteriorate.
Kind regards
Throughout D1 NCCA T&F we used to say that "you're only as good as your last race". I think that's quite applicable to the job market. Don't expect ten years down the line that your 20 month stint in a BB to move your CV to the top of the pile. Great for the initial exit but the law of diminishing returns definitely applies.
100% on point. Investment banking at any shop and especially at a BB/EB is meant to be a launching pad for a career in finance. It’s literally a step 0. It’s not some crazy massive impressive accomplishment on its own. Rather, it paves the way to make further investments in your career if that’s something you’re interested in. You’re slapping a turbocharger on your career but that shit is worthless if you decide to turn your engine off.
Anybody who thinks an analyst stint will allow them to work in any job outside of finance, or take extended vacations between job hopping, or turn heads in 15 years, is delusional at best. The idea that you can rest on your laurels because of a job you got at 22 is laughable.
Y’all kids need to realize that college, internships, first job, first review, etc are all just the very beginning. It’s becoming more well known that this idea of I’m “just gonna go to an Ivy League school” or “just gonna do a 2 year stint in banking” and then have a magical fun life is a fantasy. The reward for hard work is more hard work.
BB/EB is helpful but not a golden ticket. Definitely not buying you freedom to do whatever you want, job hunt / take long breaks etc.
It might get people to take a second look at your resume for a random corp dev job, but if you're not qualified/know nothing about the industry (especially VP and beyond, juniors get some leeway) that doesn't overcome it. Job-hopping and long breaks are never a good thing in finance, you get "garden leave" in between jobs as a senior but that's about it. You can always go back to IB once you have IB experience... I've seen former analysts come back at VP/director.
Also many (even most) people interviewing for those corp dev jobs have banking experience - if not a BB, then EB or MM which are pretty similar. So you're one of many with that type of experience.
What is garden leave and how does this affect people in IB? My coworker lateraled in from another bank and said he took 1 week off between his prior bank and our current one
Could be wrong but think its just a non-compete
The guys above are both 100% accurate. To offer another perspective, the appeal of going to a BB/EB is the same appeal for going to a top MBA, which is the network and then the brand. In your BB/EB class, you will have a lot of peers that go off in all different directions. One could go on to be a founder with a multi-million dollar exit, another could go on tobe in the C-Suite of a F500 company, another could go on to be the head of IB at the bank you started at, and so on and so forth. The BB/EB also has the same utility for your next job as the MBA does. Once you enter into your MBA, you have all these possibilities and paths you could take, but once you embark on whatever path you choose, the options are now limited. Let's say you decided to go to a HF after MBA, it will now be much more difficult to go into tech to become a PM than it would've been if you chose that PM path initially and vice versa. The breadth of career options diminish after you leave your MBA and same goes for your IB stint
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