Is Origination a Career Track

Hi,

I am a senior analyst and I recently had two job offers from boutiques (80-100 bankers), one being a traditional analyst role at an American bank and another role at an Indian bank that was suppose to be 50% analyst and 50% origination. It was suppose to be an associate role but I had a little origination experience at my first IB job (very small boutique - 10 people) and I generally am a pretty outgoing guy so they gave me the role (unfortunatley not the Associate title). The thought of being client facing early in my career seemed really cool but things have not panned out as expected and I am a little confused on what to do.

Basically the first 6 weeks were all regular analyst work (mostly pitches) but then I started to mix origination into my work day and I knocked it out of the park and got a lot of attention from the head of IBD. I was staffed on a live deal which I was really excited about but then a few weeks into the process but the head of IB took me off the deal because he thinks I am more valuable to them doing origination.

While this is somewhat flattering I don't know what kind of career track I am on and feel like it is a huge handicap that I do not have a few deals under my belt in terms of being a real investment banker.

Has anyone ever heard of this happening? Is this a real career track in IB? Will I have any exit opportunities?

Thanks for the advice, Matt