Is the average MD at PE smarter than the average MD in IBD?
Not trying to cause a storm here but is the perceived "brain drain" true from IBD to the buyside, or do equally as talented folks stay in IBD because they genuinely like the job?
Anecdotally speaking, aside from seeing some straight killers who I am just in awe of with insane IQ and work ethic who bounce to the tiger cubs, from my experience there's usually not that much difference between those who leave to the buyside vs. the A2A. I would say the distinction lies more with:
- Difference in professional interests eg. deep passion for investing
- Pursuing THE path drilled into us i.e. target school - IBD - PE/HF/MBA etc.
Yes
Yes
Yes
They are probably smarter in investing. IB MDs may edge out on sales skills, though PE MDs do still have to sell an idea to the IC.
idk tho
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Thanks, that's the only thing I need to know.
Yes. Coming from an IB MD.
You sir have a typo, please fix and revert thank you
Yes
Probably, though I feel like IB MDs may have higher EQ given the sale-sy aspect of the job?
Depends on how you measure intelligence. MDs in PE definitely have a more robust investing framework and tend to be more analytical, but I’ve met some rockstar MDs in banking that are worth their weight in gold.
Yes, in the sense that you are probably thinking about.
There are a lot of weird boomer types at iBanks who are less intelligent and are clearly the result of old ways.
The younger ones are great (sub 50) and seem to be similar to the PE guys I've dealt with.
There only two types of boomers left in banking.
1. people who never made enough money and are still in the grind. These tend to be oversalesy hustlers and are just awful
2. people who are at the top of their profession and are past the hustle and operate in god mode (Chairman of M&A)
there’s no way I’m doing this job past 50 unless I’m in category 2
Is an average MD at PE smarter than an average partner In MBB then?
Probably? But I would take a guess that the average MBB Partner > The Average BB/EB MD
Really? I don't suppose MBB partners will be financially better off than average IB MDs. So where their superiority comes from and how can it be quantified in this material world?
I mean it's not an IBankers job to be smart, figure out reality and accurately forecast the future. It's their job to err on delusional optimism and sell the deal at all costs. IB MDs totally act stupid when they get caught aggressively positioning a company that sucks, but they're not actually dumb, just salesy.
PE MDs are actually supposed to be accurate, not just get a deal done at any costs. In other words it's a PE investor's job to invest smart, an IBankers job is just to get deals done, even if those deals aren't smart arrangements for the participants.
You think we don't know some of the deals we pitch suck? We totally do lol, we just don't get paid to say that.
This is very accurate. Success in banking is completion of a deal. Success in Investing, is being right.
I think this is very much a case of you’re good at what you do a lot….IB MDs sell sell sell all the time, they don’t need to critically analyze a company to determine whether it will be a good investment, they need to win the business and find a way to position the company in the best possible light to maximize a sale price….PE is much more about critical thinking, they analyze many businesses every year to determine whether they’ll make a good investment….the PE analysis is probably what we think of as “smarter” and why they’re typically tagged as smarter than IB MDs….I just think it’s a matter of reps in your field though, not that one is necessarily smarter than the other
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