Move from Corporate banking to Investment Banking

I recently started as an analyst at one of the top Corp banking shops at a US BB. I did an offcycle and continued to join full time right away.

To be completely honest, I'm not one of those people who chose CB because I was genuinely interested in it. I chose it because I went for the brand name (over boutique IB internship offers I had).

Corporate banking gets a very good rep here at wso, but then I ended up not liking it even during my internship. Credit markets are for sure interesting, but not for me unfortunately. I tried applying to other places during my offcycle internship, but didn't really get noticed as much.

Now, as the title suggests, I want to lateral into an IB role either internally or externally. How should I approach this? How should I network for both, especially internal without coming off as a flight risk. What reasons could I tell them for trying to move so early? Does applying online for roles without networking even work in London for lateraling?

I feel insanely lucky to have this role that pays amazing with a good work life balance tbh, but at the same time I also feel doing something that I don't like doing.

Any comments on this would be super helpful. Thanks a ton.

3 Comments
 

I was in a very similar situation. Off-cycle CBG hire and made a lateral move from CB Sr. Analyst to Analyst 2 with a IB coverage group. I think it is really dependent on the Bank you're at in regards to ease of the move. For instance, I had several people that I knew throughout the Bank that made the same move, and it was pretty promoted within the corporate bank. I wouldn't think that its looked down upon for you to openly seek this move, and I'd imagine most Banks should have confidentiality with internal transfers at least at the early rounds so you can gauge the interest.

 

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