Prestige of Lehman and Bear before they collapsed

We all know about Lehman and Bear and how they collapsed. But probably most people who are just graduating or just started working don't really know what was "FEELING" of saying "I got an offer from Lehman" or "I work at Bear" in 2004, 2005. We were just starting college in those years and we didn't know as much abotu finance, banks and rankings as we know now. So the question is: for those of you who graduated more than two or three years ago, how prestigious was to work for Lehman or Bear before they collapsed? If you had to compare the "prestige feeling" of working/getting an offer from these two banks to the "prestige feeling" of working/getting an offer in one of today's banks, to which bank would you compare it? Or how would you describe it?

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Best Response

Back in '05 saying "I got an offer from CS" was like saying "I got an offer from RBS" today, CS were in a bucket of shit back then. Back in '05 Lehman was one of the BBs (smaller than GS, MS, ML, but still as prestigious). Bear was renouned for PB, but wasn't an IBD powerhouse.

__________ Just my 2c.
 

Lorican is right. First of all, JPM > CS.

Lehman was a pretty good BB right after the powerful GS/MS combo. They were probably right after Merrill Lynch with whatever other "BB's" there were previously. After all, look how well Lehman helped Barcap.

However, Bear Stearns was an in-between. I don't think they were that selective and they were more lenient than the other banks in letting back office/mid office move to the front. They were known for a few things and were very very subpar/mediocre in the rest.

 

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