Didn't get a return offer from my internship, but ended up with two FT offers: Moelis PCA and a coverage group at a lower-tier BB (Barclays / DB / RBC).
leaning towards coverage but curious what you guys would do. Thoughts?
| +240 | UBS Layoffs (October 2026) | 70 | 1h |
| +110 | Do people still want to go PE? | 34 | 4h |
| +69 | UBS Tech layoff | 19 | 41m |
| +62 | Bloomberg - New UBS Investment Bankers See Smaller Pay Gain on Promotion | 15 | 15h |
| +46 | Think I'm fucking up my analyst years | 16 | 3d |
| +36 | What Differentiates the Best Analysts as AI Improves? | 9 | 14h |
| +33 | Lazard hirevue | 11 | 16h |
| +26 | Ambitious CC Student trying to break into IB | 13 | 5d |
| +22 | Cornell Club T10 Rankings (UPDATED 10/2026) | 14 | 1d |
| +22 | Quitting After First 4 months | 10 | 1h |
Career Resources
Get instant access to lessons taught by experienced private equity pros and bulge bracket investment bankers including financial statement modeling, DCF, M&A, LBO, Comps and Excel Modeling.
Depends mostly on what you want to do after, so I'd start there.
Moelis is a stronger name on the resume, and a lot of people weight that. PCA is fundraising advisory for funds, so you're working with sponsors and LPs all day. You learn the fund world and the people in it, which is useful if you want to end up on the buy-side. What you don't get as much of is classic M&A and LBO modeling reps, and the work is more decks and process than models.
Coverage at a lower-tier BB gives you more of the traditional toolkit. Pitches, comps, valuation and a mix of M&A and capital markets, depending on the group. The bank name is weaker, but the skills transfer anywhere.
If PE is the goal, find out where each group's recent analysts actually went. Ask both teams. Exit lists tell you more than the brand does. If you want to stay in banking longer term, I'd lean coverage for the broader training unless you really like the fund side.
Also look at the groups themselves. A good team with good people at a lesser name often beats a better name with a bad group.
Thank you. Leaning coverage since I could see myself staying in banking and PCA is a newer group at Moelis so it feels like more of a gamble.
PCA if its GP-leds at Moelis. You get tons of modeling work cuz your industry bankers dont wanna do it and youre generalist. Source - i work at moelis and was staffed on multiple pitches / deals with the GP-led team
Thanks - very helpful to get your opinion. May I ask two follow questions. Is PCA a strong group within MOE?
I also worry HHs will be biased because it is not M&A or coverage.
PCA is the fastest growing group at MOE and within the next year or two will certainly be a top group given their momentum (recently closed breakout trxns for ECP and Towerbrook).
GP-leds is a combination of sale process and a fundraise process. You are selling to a new vehicle and re-underwriting the go-forward. You are then raising capital from investors to fund that vehicle.
That said, if you know the equity story, the business model, the operating model, comp set, etc. and can both talk and model well...you really think a UBS or Wells Fargo coverage banker who relies on their product teams for all things technical will really show better? It comes down to can you pitch your work experience well enough.
Also would like to add that unless you network a lot and kill your informal interviews / chats with HHs, you arent doing apollo / kkr / bx / warburg buyout investing out of this seat. You can compete for UMM, MM, and LMM buyside seats and go up market for secondaries investing seats (think Apollo S3, Blackstone SP, CVC, LGP and such)
Mostly agree with the Moelis analyst above, but I'd push back on a couple of points. I'm a first-year associate at an UMM fund, for context.
Even if Moelis PCA gets better, I don't see anyone choosing it over a traditional Moelis M&A or RX group, or a traditional even strong group at a lower-tier bank. I know someone in a similar PCA group who's been working hard to move into coverage - very repetitive and pigeon holes you.
From the PE side, there are so many candidates that funds lean heavily toward traditional banking experience. Secondaries or lower middle market are realistic from PCA, but if you look around UMM funds, you'll find plenty of people from Barclays, DB, others and basically no one from PCA. Not saying that is justified but it is how the world works.
Think it’s group specific, pm me and can explain
del
categorically false
Since when was Barclays a DB tier lol
Today. Effective today. Also RBC is a new BB now.
Coverage, always can go pca later (always looking check linkedin). Moelis also not top three.
Would you recommend EVR PCA compared to GS/MS/JPM tech in SF/Menlo? Genuinely split since pay isn’t drastically different and both seem interesting
Evr pca is much better than moelis pca but PLEASE take MS / JP / GS.
This is not even a question!
Surprised coverage is not the overwhelming response here. Gives way more optionality compared to PCA, which will pigeonhole you
Secondaries bankers are like the 2022 private credit guys or 2015 vegans, will locust swarm a conversation and drown it out.
Take the investment banking offer and decline the used car salesman offer.
I'd say easily coverage based on long term optionality. Also curious which tiered firm did you intern at? Top BB/EB (I'm recruiting FT and haven't seen many people get 1 offer let alone 2)
Do not do PCA unless you really enjoy secondaries / liquidity solutions. Especially if you want to do buyout PE. Even secondaries PE funds prefer to hire from coverage/M&A over PC, so that tells you something. The work in PCA can also be quite brain dead, even by IB standards, so you have to really enjoy the private capital market and uniting buyers and sellers
I would argue outside of PE/IB bubble Barclays / DB even have a better brand than moelis.
Source: worked in PCA and went to secondaries investing.
Three firms you mentioned here (Barclays, DB, RBC ) are no longer in the same tier. DB is basically a sinking ship in the US, and RBC was never actually considered a BB. Barclays has way better exits than the other two. I would take Barclays over MOE PCA and MOE PCA over DB/RBC
To be fair, if BB was defined by just Americas M&A RBC would be one. It's not Barc but it's a level above DB rn
Having interviewed a lot of PCA juniors, can vouch for the fact the the MOE PCA experience (GP-led) is gonna be more technical than some other PCA teams (even the the top groups like EVR).
And yeah traditional coverage experience is better for long term optionality. If your interested in secondaries and being a career banker though, MOE is a great spot to start. Will likely be a top group in a few years.
Evercore PCA does 0 modeling and minimal materials of their own.. they literally push everything on the sponsor cuz they can. Moelis PCA is more traditional IB advisory where they build all the marketing materials, unless the sponsor has a model they want to use already. Even then, the PCA team may tweak it for it to be investor friendly.
Generic banker seems like he’s been around though industry so he knows best
This is correct. Have heard it from buyers and former EVR clients.
Realistically though they can get away with it cuz they are working with top tier sponsors. Once you get passed the top clients though, the advisor is gonna have to get their hands dirty or buyers won’t bother with the deal.
All this to say, the experience at any given PCA shop is going vary widely based on the shop and the specific role.
What group within Moelis PCA were you interviewing with and what was the process like?
Unless you have a particular interest in PCA, definitely do coverage. PCA will too often involve fundraising work and isn't 'real IB' in many eyes. Traditional post-analyst exit employers (PE etc) are familiar with a certain IB experince, and PCA will be too different for them. Plus its just better for your career to learn an industry.
Appreciate everyones input. Ended up going with coverage over pca, feels like the better call.
There's a huge different between Barclays / DB / RBC. Would've taken any Barclays coverage over PCA, but would need to be very group specific at RBC, and frankly wouldn't consider DB given its a complete mess in 2026
Right choice
Voluptates perferendis et eaque et nemo odio. Sequi veniam quo labore dolorem odit nihil enim reiciendis. Cum voluptate consequatur quia inventore. Reprehenderit nihil beatae nisi beatae repellendus. Ratione velit incidunt iure voluptatem.
Et dolores voluptatem est aut. Eum possimus impedit et unde aut qui et. Molestiae et quam necessitatibus eum nobis accusamus. Ut ab dicta cupiditate laborum voluptate.
Ad sunt placeat dolor. Est facilis deserunt enim et sint et qui. Culpa assumenda nobis libero excepturi nostrum. Sapiente quod quia dignissimos voluptate voluptas. Ullam voluptatem distinctio dolore qui harum explicabo.
Modi sint eveniet rem non. Officiis deleniti non ut quas illum consectetur. Et quia enim dolores.
See All Comments - 100% Free
WSO depends on everyone being able to pitch in when they know something. Unlock with your email and get bonus: 6 financial modeling lessons free ($199 value)
or Unlock with your social account...
Facere culpa soluta qui nesciunt sequi excepturi. Qui accusamus officia doloremque ut.