Lateral to another bank

Hi,

I am currently a 2nd year S&T associate working at the HQ of a European bank in US. The bank is generally considered MM. I've read that if I lateral from a MM to a BB, my time within the associate rank resets. The information source is a little dated, but is this still true? If yes, would the best time to strategically lateral to BB be when I've been made VP at my group, therefore suffer the least time in reset?

13 Comments
 

A) After your two years as an analyst you will NOT want to continue working in banking. You'll want to get out as soon as possible. The concept of staying for a 3rd year or even a 4th as an associate is extremely painful. Trust me, you'll want out.

B) Recs are important in PE. We had a reference torpedo a candidate that we were ready to give an offer to. Guy got a lukewarm reference and that was all it took -- toast. We didn't even have a backup candidate lined up -- we went back to the drawing board.

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Best Response
CompBankerA) After your two years as an analyst you will NOT want to continue working in banking. You'll want to get out as soon as possible. The concept of staying for a 3rd year or even a 4th as an associate is extremely painful. Trust me, you'll want out.

B) Recs are important in PE. We had a reference torpedo a candidate that we were ready to give an offer to. Guy got a lukewarm reference and that was all it took -- toast. We didn't even have a backup candidate lined up -- we went back to the drawing board.

Comp, thanks for the insight...but what if your bank does not follow the 2-years-and-out rule? Do PE firms, particularly MM and growth PE, expect your references to come from your senior bankers? Or will PE firms accept that you can't list your current employer as a reference? Thanks.

 

I would say this move does not make sense unless you don't get along well with the senior people at your firm. This is probably the most important determining factor in your PE placement aside from personality and technical skills (which lateraling won't change anyway).

If you were moving from a no name to something like Lazard or Evercore then yeah the name brand and new connections will outweigh the downsides, but otherwise I don't think it's a good move. It also brings to questions why would you want to make the change, and there aren't good answers to this other than BS like "It seemed like a great opportunity" aka I care about name brand a lot or I didn't get along well with people at my old bank.

Can you give a range of what you are transferring from and to?

 

I'm going to start at a boutique bank next year. While I am fully committed to stay the standard 2 years, I'm a bit concerned about exit opportunities. I'm not completely married to the idea of jumping to the buy side, but it does seem to be the place to be in finance so I'd like as many options as possible.

Am I wrong to want to stay the full length? Should I try to lateral to a BB after a year? I'd rather not go back to school for an MBA.

 

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