lateral hire from Corp Dev to ECM IB (No IB experience)

Hello all, what do we think the prospects are like for lateraling into an ECM Investment Banking role from a Corp Dev associate role where I have been leading the IPO process and also have closed a couple of buy-side deals?

Have been working as an Associate in a Corp Dev role for the last 2 years (no IB experience prior, 3 years total exp). My company is dual-tracking, and I have been leading the IPO. Have had good exposure to the ECM side of things, wrote 85% of our S-1, modeled our deal structure, drafted deal terms, managed diligence, and also helped PM the company readiness which could be a cool interview story. Have been getting reached out to by recruiters for  M&A IB and some ECM roles.

My questions are as follows; please feel free to answer as little or as much as you would like:

• What seniority should I look into: Senior Analyst, Associate 1 (VP colleague told me he thought Associate 1 wasnt a stretch)
•  Culture, exit ops, and work load at BB vs MM? Shooting from the hip here, but I could imagine there is a more precipitous difference in reputation, hours worked, and exit ops between each tier of bank in the ECM world compared to M&A because most IPOs flow through the larger institutions.
• perspective on different teams (ie origination, v syndication v convertible)

• Refreshed look on hours, hiring trends, and such as of Q2'26 ? Lots of WSO info is a little stale.

  Thanks any insights help!