IB Culture across the States

So for the longest time I dreamed of working on Wall Street; mostly because I didn’t know the first thing about finance, and Wall Street was all I knew about from tv and movies. Now that I’m seriously considering where to work, for those of you who have worked in IB in different big cities (NY, Chicago, LA, etc.) what are the biggest differences you have found, and outside of your appreciation for the cities themselves, which do you think is the best place to work?

P.S Considering I go to UChicago I probably have the best chance of working in Chicago

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NY: the most uptight of all US geographies on average. The baseline for “standard” IB culture.

Chicago: Surprisingly not as chill as you’d think a bunch of midwesterners are. Honestly a lot of offices I know of in Chicago have pretty grindy, uptight NY-esque cultures as well. 

SF: Sweaty and a bit “nerdy”. Tech and HC is always super busy, driving an often intense culture, and the culture is definitely less “white-collar preppy” compared to NY.

LA: Culturally more relaxed than their NY counterparts but still as sweaty as their SF counterparts. Definitely a more collegial and casual culture on average.

Atlanta: Very Southern, SEC-esque culture. Everyone down there was in Greek life, everyone is white, and the vast majority have strong Southern roots (and more often than not Atlanta roots so it may seem pretty cliquey to the outsider yank lateraling in).

Charlotte: A mix of Atlanta and NYC. Culture is still pretty relaxed and collegial in a Southern way, but the people themselves are less Southern (which makes sense considering a substantial number of Charlotte bankers are NYC transplants and Charlotte itself has much less culture than Atlanta).

Can’t speak for Houston and Boston as I don’t interact with bankers there enough.

 

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