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| +138 | UBS Catastrophic Q1-Q3 26, M&A -17%, Outside Top 10 in Americas, EMEA & APAC | 38 | 1h |
| +60 | PWP acquisition by Piper cancelled | 23 | 3h |
| +46 | No return offer - UPDATE. | 12 | 58m |
| +29 | Evercore poaches Baird DC Defense Team | 18 | 21h |
| +22 | Best Houston Banks for Culture in 2026 | 15 | 41m |
| +21 | Normal for lateral process to go +2 months? | 4 | 1d |
| +18 | Lack of talent in IB! | 19 | 9h |
| +17 | Internal lateral from coverage to M&A (focused on coverage) | 4 | 22h |
| +15 | How standard is weekend work in IBD? | 7 | 4h |
| +15 | Discussion Transaction Experience in Lateral Interviews | 3 | 3d |
Career Resources
following
Same here. Following
What roles are you targeting?
Have you reached out to headhunters/agencies?
I think in this market, "any" role is a good role. Even if it means temporarily working in a back office broker/dealer firm.
Recruiters / HH are largely a waste of your time and rarely do more than give you empty promises. Their attention quickly shifts once the next wave of laid off bankers flood the street, pushing you further down their interest pile. They’re also building their book of bankers to spam you for months and years on end once we get past this vicious economic cycle.
As a laid off junior who landed another role, I found more success monitoring LinkedIn for new postings and then finding a somewhat warm contact at the firm to push my resume along after applying online. Use recruiters where you can but I wouldn’t recommend relying on them and putting your faith in them as you try to land an offer. In this market you have to go out and get it yourself.
Renewables project finance/structured finance/capital markets roles at developers. Look up Invenergy, Clearway, Intersect Power, RWE, etc.
There's a lot of demand for renewables finance people right now and a lot of firms are happy to train people who have a few years of experience. However, comp is a haircut to banking, higher than corp dev tho.
I don’t think he’ll get looks from half these places. Intersect doesn’t pay well so that could be an option.
RWE / invenergy are both Chicago and have also heard low pay over there (lower than corp dev F500)
I have a friend that works at Invenergy and know for a fact that they are at or above F500 corp dev. That said, the team has had a lot of turnover in the last year so I assume they are below market for project finance.
I believe intersect posts their comp ranges on their job postings so you can look at that.
Also, OP literally said he's looking for any role to get him back on his feet. So, I'd think making $120k+ base with 20-30% bonus and more of a life than banking would be appealing.
Assuming you're open to roles outside of IB you need to skip the HHs and apply directly to postings. Corporate jobs do not use HHs for junior roles, they are too expensive and they can just post the jobs themselves. As mentioned above, can network too once you find jobs you want.
I'd look on LinkedIn for corp finance type roles... corp strat/dev, FP&A, IR etc.
As a first year Tech M&A analyst who was laid off recently, do you think it’s possible to accept a role in Investor relations at a reputable firm and try to lateral back into M&A as an analyst in say a year or so? (or whenever economy picks up). I can’t afford to wait around for late summer and hope that analyst laterals open up.
Yes definitely. Given the environment and how hard it is to find junior finance roles right now, IR is a pretty damn good seat to land... Might even give you some interesting perspective for when you go back
What non IB/PE roles would be best to gun for now if the goal is to get back into IB later? Of course would be best to just find another IB job or something on the buyside but trying to be realistic in the current environment.
Corp dev and strategy are useful as they develop the same skillset. Corporate or commercial banking would be other ideas.. valuation, consulting, asset management, equity research too. Few of these roles are hiring a ton right now though
If you have an IR offer from a solid/name-brand firm I would take that. It's really hard as a first year, let alone a laid off first year. People will understand you had to take a different path given the situation
Do you have any advice for a '23 grad? I have 4 IB internships (none are hiring) but really struggling to gain any traction despite reaching out to everyone. Have networked with analysts/associates that got in with half of my experience.
Any chance you can extend graduation at this late hour..? December would help you land something but you really need to hustle.
Guessing this is far more of a timing issue than experience. Those people who got in likely signed as sophomores with 1 internship and then were basically good to go. If you miss the boat on SA recruiting, you have a 1 or 2-week recruiting window to land FT opportunities... tough spot.
I think you need to drop the IB or even big company aspirations right now and just find a job in finance if you can't extend graduation. Literally anything finance or corp finance related is what you're going to have to settle for given you graduate so soon. I would also look into 1-year masters programs.
Hi mate,
I work for a HF based in Australia so there may be limited translation in what I'm saying but I'll post anyway.
A lot my time now is spent networking and cold messaging PM's/other analysts on stock ideas, or simply writing back and saying "congrats on your 4Q, I like your thesis on stock XYX". I have had a lot of success/responses and made some good connections.
I have continually been doing this even whilst I'm employed to grow my network and build some personal brand in the community.
I understand IB/HF nuances would be dissimilar in what ideas you are pitching, but I think it's do able in IB.
I think the above is actually awesome advice. I do the same thing and it really has enabled me to make lots of new connections. Starting with a good impression rather than a job cold email definitely seems to help.
Would you be open to joining as an analyst?
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