Is FIG a death sentence?
Offer from US BB FIG FT(bleh). Didn’t get my top group but understand that beggars can’t be choosers given the economy. I understand that it’s super technical which does appeal to me but I’m a little worried that it’s nicheness would make exiting or moving to other coverage groups quite challenging.
Could anyone share their experiences in FIG IB? Potentially some of the more interesting transactions you’ve worked on, maybe what FIG PE / HFs like J.C. Flowers etc are like?
FIG in and of itself is not a death sentence, but the factors that led to you not getting any of your top choices definitely are. Think about it - the other groups didn't want you previously when everyone was on equal footing. Why are they likely to want you in a year or two when your experience is arguably less relevant? Similarly, FIG PE shops aren't huge and do not have a ton of spots. J.C. Flowers (if they even have a spot available) is going to want the person who was all in on FIG from day one, not the person who got stuck in FIG because they were at the bottom of their class.
In short, you a right to worry, but you are worrying for the wrong reasons.
You're just starting out your career. Focus on doing your best and improving yourself. Your objective should be to improve from bottom of your class to top of your class - then worry about exits.
Ridiculous post, there are so many factors that go into group placement, the attitude of “other groups didn’t want you,” just shows a low of understanding of the process. At most of the larger banks the group classes are filled by specific schools or connections of the senior people. While I wouldn’t go as far to say there is 0 to do with OP as a candidate, I wouldn’t read into this much at all. Some of the best analysts (both professionally and personally) that I know ended up in lousy groups, and the MS M&A and GS TMTs of the world have some of the most miserable analysts in them that you’ll meet anywhere (from a personality standpoint). This is not speculation, I’ve met many of them. I worked in a strong group at GS/MS and can tell you for a fact that every analyst in our group has a senior connection — ie someone at a VP level or above who was involved in their school recruiting and helped them place in. Getting in without that would have been near impossible.
FIG modeling is different from generalist industries such as healthcare, consumer, industrials, and probably more difficult as well. If you’re in a good FIG group, you’ll have great options in FIG and generalist available to you. That being said, WSO overhypes just how niche FIG is and exactly what that entails. Every MF has a FIG team or does FIG investments, and it’s an incredibly active sector across the various sub sectors. Sure, if you’re in an average FIG group at Citi primarily focused on insurance, you’re probably not going to get hired by Silverlake, but that doesn’t mean there aren’t plenty of other great opportunities that will be available to you.
I’ve never understood this. If anything FIG modeling is more complex. The idea that you wouldn’t be capable of valuing a traditional ebitda based company seems ridiculous.
Because this forum is an echo-chamber
Fig bankers are the biggest nerds out of all groups in any BB. Prove me wrong.
The comment above that got 9 bananas is comical. You're fine dude. Just perform well, build relationships with your seniors, and you'll be able to transition to a great PE gig afterwards.
You're at a BB bank, and you're really going to let some dude on WSO tell you what you can or can not do? Jesus christ...
FIG sell-side to FIG buy-side here.
Would advise you explore something else unless you are genuinely nerdy enough to take FIG. Compared to my batch mates during IB, I know A LOT more about insurance companies and banks. My bosses were impressed with my industry understanding during internship.
I thought I would be happy with it FT and I will be acing it but I was wrong. Your exposure to stuff other bankers doing are much less in FIG (which requires you to do extra self-study). You are doing stuff with much more regulations and sophisticated disclosure that you don't want to read them all (despite they are highly regulated, you feel like you are reading different alien languages everyday and you have loads of benchmarking because almost everything is available). Your clients are all in the finance industry and they know finance way more than a typical consumer/industrial client.
Everyone views you are a FIG expert, some will give you a try (but you will have much harder time because you don't work on their cases/models daily). Some will outright think you are their second or third choice. They would rather take a TMT dude over you even they are looking for someone to cover industrials.
FIG is not a really bad choice if you have genuine interest in it and understand it is tougher in terms of knowledge and lifestyle. Everyone wants to leave FIG so basically if you can ace it, you can easily be a star. But if you are not a star, it is difficult to find an outside option and it is difficult to survive within FIG due to the psychological pressure.