Really unsatisfied with SA group placement and looking for advice?
I received an IBD summer analyst offer from a top MM (borderline BB) bank in the fall which I happily accepted. However it was only a platform offer subject to later group and location placement. I just got my group and location placement and I'm very, very disappointed.
I got placed in my absolute dead last pick in a group most other banks wouldn't even consider "real investment banking" (and with 0 exit opps into PE or corp dev.) and in a less than desirable city (not NYC, SF, Houston, LA, Chicago, or Boston). I definitely plan to work my ass off during the summer and get the return offer, but I really cannot see myself working in the same group/city full-time and was wondering what my options are. The way I see it, I can:
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Try to get a FT return offer at a different group/city within the same bank.
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Go through FT IBD recruiting and get an offer at different bank/group/city (I've heard that FT recruiting is almost non-existent nowadays for IBD)
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Extend my graduation and go through SA IBD recruiting again for other banks.
Any thoughts/opinions/idea/suggestions or anything that I'm missing?
So Wells Fargo in Charlotte on one of their hybrid teams that is borderline commercial banking?
Hoo boy, Wells Fargo again. I was in the exact same situation as you last year, although I managed to make it work with full time recruiting in the end. I've posted about this before, so I'll just copy paste that (feel free to PM me for more specific advice):
Last year, I took an investment banking offer at Wells Fargo but then got placed in a non-ideal group. From what I've seen, Wells has a tendency to do a crappy job of placing its interns, and a lot of summer analysts end up in groups in which they have no interest. This is probably because unlike other firms, Wells uses a single pool of interns for all of its groups instead of running separate pools for its capital markets teams, asset-backed finance group, corporate finance group, etc.
Overall, my summer wasn't actually so bad: I liked most of the people in my group, and my hours ended up being pretty light, which was an unexpected plus. Still, I knew that I didn't want to work in my group for full-time. Fortunately, I was able to work my way out of it.
You basically have 3 options at this point: 1. Move to a better group within Wells after the internship 2. Lateral to a different bank after the internship 3. Screw it and move to an entirely different industry (aka what I did)
All three options are entirely possible, if you're proactive about it. In other words, I've seen people do all three.
Generally, it's easier to make a move if you're in New York, whether you want to stay at Wells or lateral to a different bank. I've seen one person move from public finance in New York to TMT in Charlotte after his internship, for instance (Charlotte teams usually have more room than New York teams for transfers). Another guy in the corporate finance IBD group lateraled to Evercore.
It's not impossible to move in Charlotte either, though it's a little harder if your end goal is New York. One summer analyst on my team in Charlotte just moved to Credit Suisse in New York. Don't know exactly how he pulled it off, giving the logistical difficulties of networking and interviewing in New York when you're based in North Carolina, but it happens.
Finally, there's me. Working in banking made me realize that I didn't especially enjoy banking, regardless of the group I was in. So by the 3rd week of July, I had opened up the old networking excel sheet, and started making calls to alumni all over. I was also interested in consulting, so I started practicing case interviews on my weekends in Charlotte. I went through the standard full time recruiting process in September and October, and interviewed at a whole bunch of asset managers and consulting firms. Networking also landed me my only equity research interview, at a top group in New York (full time equity research hiring was slim to none this year, so I was pretty lucky to get this interview). Things went pretty well- I converted my one equity research interview, which was actually one of my top picks, and I've just signed on to work there full time.
Key takeaways from the whole process? Start networking early- I started networking at the halfway point in my internship, but since you're already so sure of things, you should start even earlier. I don't know the exact timeline for networking if you want to lateral, since I wasn't interested in doing so personally, but I'm sure there's plenty of threads on this forum about that. And try your best to get the offer at the end of the internship. It's not the end of the world if you don't (consulting firms don't seem to care, for instance), but it'll make your life a lot easier, since it's almost impossible to move in banking without one as leverage.
For me, I just didn't really vibe with the city when I visited. And its really limited in terms of networking opportunities making it harder to recruit for post-banking opportunities.
lol didn't vibe with the city
Based on your past posts, I'm assuming that you're working at Wells Fargo? In which case, you're in a similar situation to where I was last year- I took an investment banking offer at Wells Fargo but then got placed in a non-ideal group. From what I've seen, Wells has a tendency to do a crappy job of placing its interns, and a lot of summer analysts end up in groups in which they have no interest. This is probably because unlike other firms, Wells uses a single pool of interns for all of its groups instead of running separate pools for its capital markets teams, asset-backed finance group, corporate finance group, etc.
Overall, my summer wasn't actually so bad: I liked most of the people in my group, and my hours ended up being pretty light, which was an unexpected plus. Still, I knew that I didn't want to work in my group for full-time. Fortunately, I was able to work my way out of it.
You basically have 3 options at this point: 1. Move to a better group within Wells after the internship 2. Lateral to a different bank after the internship 3. Screw it and move to an entirely different industry (aka what I did)
All three options are entirely possible, if you're proactive about it. In other words, I've seen people do all three.
Generally, it's easier to make a move if you're in New York, whether you want to stay at Wells or lateral to a different bank. I've seen one person move from public finance in New York to TMT in Charlotte after his internship, for instance (Charlotte teams usually have more room than New York teams for transfers). Another guy in the corporate finance IBD group lateraled to Evercore.
It's not impossible to move in Charlotte either, though it's a little harder if your end goal is New York. One summer analyst on my team in Charlotte just moved to Credit Suisse in New York. Don't know exactly how he pulled it off, giving the logistical difficulties of networking and interviewing in New York when you're based in North Carolina, but it happens.
Finally, there's me. Working in banking made me realize that I didn't especially enjoy banking, regardless of the group I was in. So by the 3rd week of July, I had opened up the old networking excel sheet, and started making calls to alumni all over. I was also interested in consulting, so I started practicing case interviews on my weekends in Charlotte. I went through the standard full time recruiting process in September and October, and interviewed at a whole bunch of asset managers and consulting firms. Networking also landed me my only equity research interview, at a top group in New York (full time equity research hiring was slim to none this year, so I was pretty lucky to get this interview). Things went pretty well- I converted my one equity research interview, which was actually one of my top picks, and I've just signed on to work there full time.
Key takeaways from the whole process? Start networking early- I started networking at the halfway point in my internship, but since you're already so sure of things, you should start even earlier. I don't know the exact timeline for networking if you want to lateral, since I wasn't interested in doing so personally, but I'm sure there's plenty of threads on this forum about that. And try your best to get the offer at the end of the internship. It's not the end of the world if you don't (consulting firms don't seem to care, for instance), but it'll make your life a lot easier, since it's almost impossible to move in banking without one as leverage.