Private Capital Advisory Vs Investment Banking (Coverage)

Question

Recently saw someone mentioned that PCA's pay and WLB was better than IB at Evercore. Although I don't have any offer for PCA, I was just curious to understand whether IB (Prestige and exit opps) is still worth the effort if PCA potentially can also lead to good exits and some might argue that it is one of the teams to look out for in the future?Would appreciate all the thoughts!

TheBuellerBanker · Accepted Answer

PCA is a fantastic career option vs coverage ib which is also a good career option but obviously opens you up to more roles down the road. Cracking it in PCA really means you're extremely relationship-oriented and you are comfortable speaking with key capital holding relationships from the get-go. As a PCA banker, you are effectively helping steward your firm's most important PE / other alt fund relationships and providing them with the inroads to raise more capital.

thirdfifthbank · Answer

If you are looking at the roles in the UK, then disregard this, but for the US:

If you are planning on exiting banking after two years, traditional IB is better (depends on the place, but EVR M&A >>> EVR PCA when it comes to PE placements). That being said, if you are planning on being a career banker PCA (and especially EVR PCA since they dominate the market) is the way to go. Better hours, higher aso+ comp, wider array of deal types (closer to a BB coverage IB in the large variance of deal types).

Generic Banker · Answer

Eh I think there can be some truth to it. Depends on the bank and the group. Have to take it with a grain of salt but word is the JEF PCA teams don’t do much besides make calls to investors and their industry teams do a lot… idk how true this can be given their hours but that’s the word.

Also, if you’re in an LP-led seat… you are literally doing nothing but coordinating DD calls and running a VDR. I focus on GP-leds but running a tender process isn’t much different from an LP portfolio sale and we don’t do much on our tender processes.

thirdfifthbank · Answer

EVR PCA did 60 billion in deal flow last year with ~80 bankers across both NYC/LON (from PEI), which means an near 2-4x fee generation compared to M&A. EVR M&A is way more prestige though.

+273	Earliest you can get fired	58	1d
+252	Investment Banking is Divine	40	1d
+216	Another $115bn Mega deal for these banks. Congrats!	45	1d
+215	US 2027 SA IB worried about background check	53	1d
+206	Analyst: Why is UBS IB doing worse than peers?, UBS CFO: No Comment	41	1d
+131	Is UBS really that bad?	38	1d
+40	Is Houston SA 28 recruiting already over?	34	14h
+28	NYU Stern Transfer from non-target Is Paradise	9	39m
+27	FIG Pigeonholes you - is it true?	8	1d
+27	2026-27 IB Energy Top Banks	8	1d

1	redever	99.2
2	BankonBanking	99.0
3	kanon	99.0
4	Secyh62	99.0
5	GameTheory	98.9
6	CompBanker	98.9
7	DrApeman	98.9
8	dosk17	98.9
9	Betsy Massar	98.9
10	Linda Abraham	98.8

Elite Career Bootcamp. Top Job Offer Guaranteed.

Elite Career Bootcamp. Top Job Offer Guaranteed.

Private Capital Advisory Vs Investment Banking (Coverage)

Score Breakdown

Feedback

Score Breakdown

Feedback

Elite Career Bootcamp. Top Job Offer Guaranteed.

Elite Career Bootcamp. Top Job Offer Guaranteed.

Private Capital Advisory Vs Investment Banking (Coverage)

Trending Content - Investment Banking Forum