I'm a sophomore gearing up for summer internship apps. Been doing my research and came across this ranking. Real talk - how much does prestige actually matter for your career trajectory? Is there a significant difference between landing a gig at a "platinum" vs a "gold" firm?
| +236 | Who Killed Wall Street | 65 | 2d |
| +194 | Worlds Worst MDs Competition (2026 Edition) | 45 | 3h |
| +137 | Only Indians cold emailing | 45 | 2h |
| +125 | Lindsay Clancy - Thoughts from A2 | 22 | 3d |
| +84 | UBS Healthcare | 38 | 2h |
| +51 | Shana tova - happy new year | 7 | 2h |
| +48 | NYC Wall Street Run Club | 13 | 11h |
| +48 | More diversity needed in the industry | 11 | 22h |
| +43 | EB (EVR/CVP/LAZ) vs MBB (Bain/BCG) | 22 | 5h |
| +36 | Did My Team Set Me Up to Miss VP? | 19 | 49m |
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Would advise against recruiting purely for firm prestige, most verticals are dominated by different banks, depends more on your sector than anything. Prestige matters in the sense that it will be easier to recruit for MF PE out of Goldman than it will be out of a no name boutique. At the end of the day your career progression following your analyst years is mainly dependent on your deal experience, connections, industry knowledge, and personality. Whichever shop will give you the best opportunity to advance the first three of the aforementioned factors is likely the best spot to pursue, hope this helps.
Thanks for the insight! I've heard that getting into Goldman or JPM is somewhat like MBB in consulting (McKinsey, BCG, Bain)—a bit of a golden ticket in terms of resume building. Would you say it's the same for IB, or does deal experience and industry focus outweigh that in the long run?
I would not say it's a golden ticket, as previously stated it will likely open some doors that would not be opened for you at a smaller shop. However, the bulk of career advancement in this industry is driven by quality & quantity of deal experience and the connections that you form and nurture in the early years of your career. The ability to advance your career ultimately falls on you, not the name of the bank on your resume.
Citi??????????
Vault has Citi ranked #13 out of 50. So maybe not quite platinum tier but gold at least? Where would you rank Citi?
Ah yes the legendary iper Sandler
You mean Iper Sandle?
Citi immediately invalidates this
It's better to start your career at a better "brand name" than not to, but as another user pointed out, your career trajectory depends much more on you than on the brand you start your career at, so don't ever become complacent. Oxford is a better "brand" than UCL, but if your get a third class degree from Oxford and don't join any societies, you'd be in a far worse position than the first class President of Finance Society at UCL. Specifically for recruiting to MFPE (and you didn't say that you wanted that), then it's probably easier to get your foot in the door AT THE MARGIN in the "higher tiers" but of course you need to perform in interviews, etc.
That said, if the above ~20 names are the only ones you're applying to, you're doing this wrong. Get your CV out everywhere and if you have the luxury of deciding between Lazard and Moelis then pop back online and have a chat
Credit Suisse doesn’t exist anymore, even last year
I think rankings are stupid but this is crazy. You have Citi above PJT and Barclays, CS isn't even a thing anymore, the tier names are idiotic, you have WB/RBC/HL with DB/PWP/GP and you're grouping in Loop (what even is that) with legitimate banks.
lolololol PWP=RBC? PJT=UBS? Moelis=Barclays? CVP=BofA? Evercore=Citi?
Alpha sort. Piper logo. Pls fix.
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