Is Leveraged Finance the Toughest Investment Banking Group to Get Into? Also, should you know which investment banking group you want to be in when you interview?
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My understanding is that LevFin is generally going to be one of the top 3-4 hardest groups to get into at any BB firm. M&A is generally the hardest group to get into, with the exception of a few superstar sector groups and generalist programs (eg UBS LA)
Group selection never came up during my actual interviews, but it did come up during networking (both pre and post offer). That was just my experience.
In a lot of banks leveraged finance is not classified within investment banking. eg at Citi it is under capital markets
yea lehman has a capital market; and yes im a newbie to this whole IB thing, so mind tellin me a little more about the capital market???; i no it deals w/ stocks and bonds so is it like S&T??
How is Citi's group regarded on the street? What about Lehman?
Citi is pretty good, a major player in high yield. I can be wrong but I believe they were #2 in the league tables and JP Morgan was #1 last year.
LFG is a tough group depending on the bank. At places like JPM, BofA, where LFG is one of the best groups at the bank, then it's a little tough. At GS, MS, Leh it's probably not one of the top choices for incoming first years, and you'll have a harder job getting into a top industry group.
ginNtonic-- If LF is not one of the top choices for newcomers as GS, what would you say are some of the top choices?
Hell if I know, I got out of the group jockeying after I accepted my offer senior year of college many years ago, I suggest everyone else doing the same. Most of the people on this board masturbate all over TMT though.
So because its so difficult to get into, should you not say anything about wanting to do lev fin because then they will think you dont want to be in other groups?
Do whatever group you want to do. If you're a good person the bank will hire you regardless of what you want. I don't know it just sounds stupid to me wanting to do FIG, but telling interviewers, etc. that I want to do munis or something.
If you do get the "what groups are you interested in?" question, then you have two choices:
- "I am still in the process of finding out the culture of each group, but from what I understand about what the group does, and from the people that I met, yadda yadda yadda."
- "I am still in the process of finding out the culture of each group and see where I would fit in best"
Don't use those verbatim, but something along those lines should work.
Group selection came up during my interview too. But they're not thinking about placing you, they want to know if you've done your research and figured out how the group is structured. Also, this is a good opportunity to show that you've really networked with people. Don't say negative things about any one group.
I got into a tough spot on superday. Interviewer: "what groups are you interested in" Me: "levfin" Interviewer: "why not M&A? (she was in M&A)" Me - starts to sweat, said "oh shit to myself" My response was: "I like being in a product group versus a coverage group (knew the difference), because I want to work on different deal teams (backs up my why I want i-banking question). I networked with X,Y, and Z in LevFin and I liked the enviornment adn the people. I didn't have the opportunity to talk with anyone else in M&A, but if I were given an offer, I'd love to look into it." *i didn't end up in levfin, but i love my group. i haven enough free time to post here.
Why is leveraged finance the hardest group to get into?? (Originally Posted: 05/07/2012)
I have spoken with many people in the industry and this appears to be consensus; some opinions on why? is it just PE exit strategy?? thanks!
What
Because there's no deal flow at the moment. It'll be temporary thing.
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