Lateral Directly After Associate Promotion?

I’m at a MM in NYC with a cultural of internal A to A promotion. The dilemma is that I don’t want to make a career at this bank, and my goal is to transfer to a MS/GS/JPM as a first year associate.

My question is would it be in bad taste to tell my current bank that I want to continue as an associate (when that conversation arises), and then “shop” my promotion offer to the above banks?

The logic behind this is that MS/GS/JPM will not take 2nd year analyst laterals without making them do an extra year for the analysts to prove themselves worthy of the associate title. If I lateral after I have already received the promotion at my MM, I can skip the risky extra analyst year-- the 3rd year which may or may not lead to a promotion.

Is this at all standard in the industry? Many thanks.

5 Comments
 
Best Response

My MM has made it clear that they frown upon things like this, but honestly, I think it is more HR, not the bankers themselves, who care. At the end of the day, I think a senior banker would rather have you leave than begrudgingly work.

What I would really think about, however, is the difference in expectations and hours that come from lateraling to a BB. When I got to my MM, lateraling to a BB was my goal as well, but I ended up changing my mind because I enjoy the slightly less hours that I work (albeit with slightly less pay).

 

I would not let "frowned upon" influence your making the best decision for yourself and your career. The firm does not care and will find someone else to replace you very quickly, so do what is best for you.

Having done something somewhat similar a few years ago, I would also keep in mind that the BB may bump you back to 3rd year analyst anyway to discount your MM experience. Not saying it will definitely happen but something to think about if it comes up. Is the goal to be an Associate or get the BB offer (assuming BB is what you are after)? Also, in that scenario, highly unlikely they would go through the trouble of interviewing and bringing you in as a 3rd year analyst and choose to not promote you or fire you one year later, so long as you are perfoming well/within range.

 

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