36 Comments
 
Most Helpful

You’d hope that would be the case. However, during my SA stint a lady with terrible performance who also got into arguments with analysts and associates got the return over dudes who grinded their ass off (and this was at an EB).

This is completely anecdotal and maybe it was a one off thing I am not sure. Curious to see if others have seen something similar happen.

Not saying women have it easier, but I am willing to bet firms may be more lenient towards certain folks in order to meet their diversity quotas.

 

Not true. Diversity quotas happen throughout your career. If banks are aiming for 50/50 intern class gender split, they're not gonna let that slip to 70/30 for FT are they. With diversity quotas you are competing within your demographic, not with the whole cohort.

 

Intern in IB-M&A

Not true. Diversity quotas happen throughout your career. If banks are aiming for 50/50 intern class gender split, they're not gonna let that slip to 70/30 for FT are they. With diversity quotas you are competing within your demographic, not with the whole cohort.

That's almost exactly what happened in my class. We went from a couple black women to exactly 0, for example.

 

Women generally earn preference but there are some trends that show negatives towards women. Especially in banking, a married woman in her upper 20s or lower 30s is already gonna be at a big disadvantage to a single man in his mid 20s. They want people who will work long hours and not have kids or other major priorities to take care of. Social life is good, but that's why banking isn't for everyone, or even most people. But a single women in her mid-20s would earn the edge on a single man in his mid 20s for diversity. Of course they won't know the relationship statuses in the interview as it's still private, but usually will find out within months where the employees commitments are.

Of course technical skills are the biggest factor. I don't want to minimize those, but some job offers may tilt you in another direction depending on those social priorities.

 

With most SA opportunities, the return offer is yours to lose regardless of your gender. If you prepare well and truly give your best effort, you will more than likely get a return. If you do poor-quality work and don't get along with others, you won't be worth keeping around just to balance the office gender ratio. So, go into it with the perspective of needing to prove that they made the right choice by offering you the job, and you will be fine.

 
Controversial

The number of incompetent male bankers is absolutely higher than female bankers just due to statistics. However, an underperforming male banker is seen as just a bad banker, but an underperforming female banker is bad because she’s a woman. There’s a ton of confirmation bias in these threads

It’s similar to the belief that women talk more than men, when the reality is that women talk less at work but are perceived as talking more (by men)

If women were truly given a leg up in the industry, you would see more than 1% female MDs. At the end of the day it’s still a boys club and these boys wouldn’t trade a day as a woman. Y’all can stay mad but it’s the truth

 

Can’t tell if you’re a massive simp or if you really believe that women basically shoulder all of the world’s burdens. It’s pretty pathetic either way

 

Women attend college at higher rates, are over 50% in med school and law school, and make more on average in 20s than average similarly aged male.

Tired of this nonsense. They have everything handed to them despite trending higher than males in every metric imaginable.

If the top candidates are all males then I want an all male team in IB.  Girls need to perform.  Otherwise they can go become doctors or lawyers where they outnumber men and have numerous diversity hiring programs assisting them.

 

Quick look through your post history shows you are a racist and antisemite. No big surprise you're a sexist hiding behind seemingly innocuous arguments of "oh I just want the BEST, is that too much to ask".

The day Wall Street pushes you lot out, the better.

Reference: laughing at a comment insinuating that Jews run the world (WEF conspiracy)

Saying Indians don't shower 

Getting banned from reddit for "posting race statistics", we all know what people actually mean to say when they do stuff like that

My God, you're a vile person lmao. But, perhaps, perfect for the WSO gang who are pretty much all looneys anyway.

 

As I've said in other threads. I'll caveat that I assist in the diversity hiring process at my bank but am not "diverse". 

I've seen women be given far more slack both in analyst hiring and certainly in lateral at all levels. 

Honestly you can be mediocre as a woman and get the offer over a strong non diverse candidate. 

Sponsors M&A (London)
 

Since most intern classes are >50% women anyway, it doesn't matter. A bad (female) intern will not get a return offer, but the bar of being 'bad' is pretty high. I saw it last year, it didn't matter if you were a woman or not, if you were bad you were cut (BB bank). But in most cases, banks will try to convert the entire intern class, so that meets the % ratios anyway.

 

Far easier to get a return for a woman/other diverse groups. A girl who couldn't put together company profiles without hand holding got the return since we had to manage our quotas, but this led to a guy intern who would have otherwise received a return miss out

 

It's easier because women aren't competing with the whole intern class for the return offer, they're only competing with the other women. And women in the intern class on average are going to be of worse quality given it was far less competitive for them to get there in the first place due to diversity quota hiring. E.g. a 20th percentile performing intern may be a 50th percentile performing woman so they'll be safe.

 

Can we just have like a pinned post on this website explaining that in every situation that matters women will be favoured, and the extent of the favouritism is based on the bank? I'm kind of tired of these posts and the DEI posts given that the same incentive structures that were in place in 2020 are still mostly here today. 

 

Velit omnis nam illum. Reiciendis rerum officiis sequi facilis. Velit ea et est dolorem voluptatem.

 

Occaecati velit et magnam dolores. Qui magni culpa vel voluptatem perspiciatis autem. Eaque tenetur explicabo hic quis. Similique est quia eum voluptas eveniet nihil. Autem reiciendis veniam autem sit ad. Corporis aut dolores aut aperiam.

Totam quam corporis at ut blanditiis deserunt. Rerum laboriosam odit sed deserunt neque. Ullam recusandae ex fuga voluptatibus libero qui minima deserunt. Cumque dicta sapiente dolorem neque minima voluptas earum quo. Delectus veniam aut consequatur sint possimus blanditiis autem nihil.

Career Advancement Opportunities

June 2026 Investment Banking

  • Evercore 01 99.4%
  • Moelis & Company 01 98.8%
  • JPMorgan 01 98.2%
  • Guggenheim Partners 01 97.7%
  • Morgan Stanley 07 97.1%

Overall Employee Satisfaction

June 2026 Investment Banking

  • Moelis & Company No 99.4%
  • Morgan Stanley 02 98.8%
  • Evercore 01 98.2%
  • BMO Capital Markets 12 97.6%
  • Banco Santander 01 97.1%

Professional Growth Opportunities

June 2026 Investment Banking

  • Evercore 01 99.4%
  • Moelis & Company 01 98.8%
  • Morgan Stanley 05 98.2%
  • JPMorgan No 97.7%
  • BMO Capital Markets 12 97.1%

Total Avg Compensation

June 2026 Investment Banking

  • Vice President (14) $434
  • Associates (43) $259
  • 3rd+ Year Analyst (8) $210
  • 2nd Year Analyst (22) $179
  • Intern/Summer Associate (13) $156
  • 1st Year Analyst (77) $151
  • Intern/Summer Analyst (71) $101
notes
16 IB Interviews Notes

“... there’s no excuse to not take advantage of the resources out there available to you. Best value for your $ are the...”

Leaderboard

1
redever's picture
redever
99.2
2
BankonBanking's picture
BankonBanking
99.0
3
Secyh62's picture
Secyh62
99.0
4
kanon's picture
kanon
99.0
5
DrApeman's picture
DrApeman
98.9
6
dosk17's picture
dosk17
98.9
7
Betsy Massar's picture
Betsy Massar
98.9
8
GameTheory's picture
GameTheory
98.9
9
CompBanker's picture
CompBanker
98.9
10
Linda Abraham's picture
Linda Abraham
98.8
success
From 10 rejections to 1 dream investment banking internship

“... I believe it was the single biggest reason why I ended up with an offer...”