Mid-Level BB Coverage Group Exit Opps

I've been a lurker here for the past year and the threads have been very helpful.

I just finished up my SA at a mid-level BB (BAML, Citi, CS) in one of the top industry groups. I liked the people, but I am a little concerned about potential exit opps to PE from my group. PE exits haven't been great the last 3 or so years.

Are top PE exits still possible from a good coverage group? On WSO, there's a consensus that M&A is significantly better than top coverage groups. To what degree is this true?

12 Comments
 

For analysts looking to go to the buy side, M&A and Sponsors (probably LevFin as well) are very strong recruting pools because of the additional modeling experience that analysts get in those groups. However, the firms that recruit from there are the typical sweat shops that are going to use you as an XLS slave just like the group you came from.

It all depends on what you want to do with your life post banking.....

 

Highly dependent on the bank.

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assuming megafunds aren't realistic, but would upper MM PE's recruit from industry groups from a mid-tier BB? Or does it mostly depend on how much you impress the headhunters that reach out to you?

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Best Response

I don't know where you get your "mid-tier" BBs from. Headhunters define Tier 1 banks as any BB and include elite boutiques. It's all about brand name, any bank outside of those will be considered Tier 2. This is from a headhunter who places into HFs and PE.

Long story short, reputation of group, recs, and T1 status are what they look for as an initial screener - obv GPA and sometimes SAT score. This varies from headhunter to headhunter, but is pretty standardized (as much as PE recruiting can get).

Calm down.
 

Thanks for all the responses guys - very helpful.

I said mid-tier BBs because it's not GS/MS/JPM. My understanding was that there are PE shops that will not interview people not at GS/MS/JPM. How widespread is this?

Similarly, once you get an interview, does your bank/group still matter or is it mostly based on your performance in the interview at that point?

 

lol so u're aiming just for the shops that recruit exclusively from certain groups? if that's your mentality then all BBs are mid-tiers.

scrub.

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Calm down.

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