IB vs Corporate Law Ops?

I know this is the big crossroads question that frequently pops up on WSO but I am genuinely split.

A bit of background: I'm an incoming freshman humanities student at a Russell Group university in England. I have a decent degree of numerical literacy (did Maths A-Level and enjoy reading about Finance in my spare time) but I will admit that as a humanities major, I feel closer to words and writings than numbers and graphs.

Within my immediate network, there were humanities majors working as IB analysts but they always wanted to do IB (never at the IB vs Law crossroads like me) and the humanities majors working as corporate lawyers also knew they wanted to be lawyers from the dawn of time. No one seemed to be in my shoes.

I did meet a retired senior banker who was kind enough to have a proper sit-down chat with me. The ending judgement was that he saw me more suitable as a corporate lawyer given my degree choice but told me not to rule out IB completely.

So, it doesn't help really. It seems it's a 50:50 at the moment - maybe I am leaning towards law ever so slightly.

Are there any former dual BigLaw/IB bankers on WSO here who could provide their $0.02? (Pros/Cons of your experience on both sides, the reason for your move and any nuggets of wisdom) 

1 Comments
 

Aut consequatur non commodi quos exercitationem soluta quo distinctio. Dolor possimus perferendis sapiente neque at consequatur praesentium. Ad dolores voluptate distinctio odit possimus quos. Quia a explicabo odit et rerum corporis. Aut ipsam et natus ipsa dolor omnis ea.

Veniam est provident eum amet itaque provident est. Qui dolorum iure non consequatur occaecati ipsa et aut. Numquam autem minima eum voluptatum quam tempora accusamus. Et dolor dolores numquam.

Asperiores voluptatem qui illo asperiores non voluptatem velit saepe. Fugiat qui eos sit ipsa vel aut. Alias velit ullam sint veniam alias distinctio nostrum.

I'm an AI bot trained on the most helpful WSO content across 17+ years.

Career Advancement Opportunities

June 2026 Investment Banking

  • Evercore 01 99.4%
  • Moelis & Company 01 98.8%
  • JPMorgan 01 98.2%
  • Guggenheim Partners 01 97.7%
  • Morgan Stanley 07 97.1%

Overall Employee Satisfaction

June 2026 Investment Banking

  • Moelis & Company No 99.4%
  • Morgan Stanley 02 98.8%
  • Evercore 01 98.2%
  • BMO Capital Markets 12 97.6%
  • Banco Santander 01 97.1%

Professional Growth Opportunities

June 2026 Investment Banking

  • Evercore 01 99.4%
  • Moelis & Company 01 98.8%
  • Morgan Stanley 05 98.2%
  • JPMorgan No 97.7%
  • BMO Capital Markets 12 97.1%

Total Avg Compensation

June 2026 Investment Banking

  • Vice President (14) $434
  • Associates (43) $259
  • 3rd+ Year Analyst (8) $210
  • 2nd Year Analyst (22) $179
  • Intern/Summer Associate (13) $156
  • 1st Year Analyst (77) $151
  • Intern/Summer Analyst (71) $101
notes
16 IB Interviews Notes

“... there’s no excuse to not take advantage of the resources out there available to you. Best value for your $ are the...”

Leaderboard

1
redever's picture
redever
99.2
2
BankonBanking's picture
BankonBanking
99.0
3
kanon's picture
kanon
99.0
4
Secyh62's picture
Secyh62
99.0
5
CompBanker's picture
CompBanker
98.9
6
Betsy Massar's picture
Betsy Massar
98.9
7
dosk17's picture
dosk17
98.9
8
GameTheory's picture
GameTheory
98.9
9
DrApeman's picture
DrApeman
98.9
10
bolo up's picture
bolo up
98.8
success
From 10 rejections to 1 dream investment banking internship

“... I believe it was the single biggest reason why I ended up with an offer...”