141 Comments
 

Bad topic but this could be helpful for someone in undergrad with 2 offers. For PE recruiting, I'd say these rankings are pretty accurate.

 

Exactly, idk why these sensitive boomers are so mad. This is essentially how headhunters view the BBs, it's not like OP said that DB employees are idiots and GS ones are geniuses.

I went to a nontarget and when I had offers from 2 BBs I had no idea which was better until I looked at WSO. If I went to the wrong one, my whole life trajectory would have been messed up.

 

This is honestly accurate, very few people work at GS/MS/JPM though, so enjoy the monkey shits.

If anyone has an offer from 2 banks, take the one in the higher tier. If same tier, go with people/culture.

 

Weird thing to say without consideration of groups or office if it is non-NYC. The difference between the "middle" and "top" here is less of a difference than the difference between groups.

 

Most BB offers are generalist and you have to network in to a group(Big reason why I went to an EB. You are absolutely right about NYC vs non-NYC; however, I'd say this ranking would be correct if there was a caveat that said "NYC offices and average group"

 
Controversial

Thoughts on EB rankings (can this even be done?):

Tier 1: Evercore Centerview Partners (both have top-notch pay, amazing deal flow and supposedly solid culture)

Tier 1(b): PJT Partners (top-notch pay, mega deals, slightly less established) Moelis (top pay, established, but higher volume of smaller deals, somewhat notorious culture) Lazard (prestigious global brand, fantastic deal flow, but pay is on the lower end of the spectrum) PWP (heavy-hitter senior bankers, top pay, still relatively less established, fewer deals)

Tier 2: Greenhill (established boutique, but been on a downward trend) Guggenheim (some mega deals, but heavily group-dependent - namely TMT, HC and FIG, otherwise sometimes considered to be MM)

Assumptions: -NYC office -M&A (not inclusive of RX) -Also does not include top MM such as HLHZ, Jeffries, Blair, etc.

 
Most Helpful

Not sure why PJT isn't in Tier 1 tho, given top 10 M&A last year, largest per deal size (but multiple large deals, not one outlier skewing the mean, with Abbvie, TDAm, all the MGM deals, Caesars, Danaher/GE, etc.), largest deal value per analyst by far especially after EVR expanded its class and top notch recruiting, virtually everyone goes to top PE or HF (most recent included BX, APO, Carlyle, CB, TPG and a couple tiger cubs).

Also don't forget about CVP's 3 year deal and the fact that they're less keen on their juniors recruiting (even tho people do it anyway).

Also tempted to maybe swap CVP and MOE? Idk, culture sucks but it's definitely established especially if you include LA

 

These pointless popcorn threads will never stop b/c junior bankers love paying attention to crap senior bankers couldn't give 2 monkey poos about; banking is banking; so and so is not a BB and so and so is blah blah. Reality is that a "bottom tier" BB could have strong deal flow and pay bigger base & bonus than a "top tier" BB ranked higher on the league tables.

 

The comparison still exists but instead of bank - bank its sell/side - buy/side so most IB MD/D will probably be viewed on as a failure by their circle. Usually those at the "bottom" care the least about such rankings or think they are the top.

 

I can assure you that no MD/D is looked at as a failure. That has to be one of the stupidest things I’ve ever read on this forum. You should quit life and stop offering stupid opinions.

 

I'm sorry but RBC is still a balance sheet bank and not a BB..

They did ~300-400 Syndicated Loan deals, ~300-400 DCM deals vs a paltry ~100 M&A and ~100 ECM deals last year.

That is not the profile of a BB investment banking division and the people of this forum trying to push RBC as one have absolutely no grounds to. It's basically a slightly better version of HSBC or Nomura, nothing more.

 

Look, as a director at one of these firms, I'd say these tiers are pretty accurate for domestic M&A.

However, instead of beefing up the status of RBC and Wells Fargo, UBS should really be removed from consideration as a Bulge Bracket - the deals just aren't there to back it up, and these past few years aren't an anomaly.

 

What are people's opinion of MS vs. JPM? I feel like MS gets a lot of hype but in a majority of league table publications (merger market, factset, wsj, etc) they seem to be behind JPM in global M&A. JPM does more deals but not many more, which leads me to believe both have exposure to big deals.

I know MS is a leader in the Tech IPO front but if you were deciding between the two today, which would you go? Factoring in recent performance, future outlook and the way the banks have positioned themselves

 

Comparing banks by league table ranking can be misleading because it's like comparing countries by absolute GDP. If they're all roughly the same size, fine, but typically it's more helpful to look at it on a per capita basis. I know it's not a perfect metric, but one way to compare analyst experience/deal complexity is to look at transaction value per analyst. If you adjusted league tables accordingly, small M&A banks like PJT that are powerhouses rise dramatically (arguably more in line with their prestige/analyst placement) and I am willing to bet that MS would similarly bounce above JPM simply due to dramatic differences in headcount. Hope that helps.

 

JP has way many more employees and is just a big clunky bank - viewed as far more inferior than MS at the junior level in terms of prestige and exits. Top MS groups will land you at far better places than top JP groups. ..

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