Moving from MS to a worse bank

Hey guys- i’m currently in the M&A group at MS and to be honest i’m kinda burnt out from the hours but love the work.

In general, would moving to a weaker brand name bank like for eg. TD Securities (or in this kind of range of banks) make my hours any better given they will have less live mandates?

What is the attitude at these places, is it to just pitch for anything and everything so hours end up being the same?? (more pitching, less live transactions)

16 Comments
 

I think it’s a bad career move to purposefully try to “lower prestige” think in the long run.

That being said I know some groups at TD are killing it, like there energy/development group or whatever it is.

The biggest thing you could do is change groups. M&A will always be the most grinded and commoditized group on the street. If you go to some coverage groups you could be less sweaty.

 
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It depends on deal flow of the bank. If less reputable is because of deal flow (i.e. likely DB or a Santander etc.) then yes. But it’s entirely group dependent. Dudes at William Blair and Baird doing more hours than 75% of bulge bracket groups.

Group performance is almost directly correlated with your own bonus potential too, so keep that in mind.

 

why is it a bad move to "lower prestige"? Seems like this is an overgeneralization.. 

 

TD has a bad rep for dropping the bar for women dramatically. Groomer MDs paying and promoting them for existing. 

 

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