23 Comments
 

Do you hold offers from both? Depends what you want.

Buyside? Go Barclays = still BB experince > MM, ask any recruiter in London Banker for life? Go Rothschild = faster career progression, better hours etc

 
Best Response

I have offers from both; one recruiter I spoke to said Barclays reputation is now considered by many as just out of BB and in the 'best of the rest' category, and that a high number of smaller deals makes you potentially more attractive on the buyside (in Europe) than a couple of big deals closed. What do you guys think?

To me, the pros and cons seem to be:

R has better overall prestige and reputation, amazing deal flow but more mid-market deals B still works on some top deals esp in UK, but is much less secure, both in terms of IBD seniors, junior job security and overall group structure

I think comp at Barclays is slightly higher, bonus-wise, from the surveys out there. Rothschild seems to have pretty low churn, which I think is a good sign. The recruiter I spoke to said exit to BB except for GS MS JP would be pretty feasible (if that was the route I was after), and GS MS JP possible but depends more on overall strength of candidate.

The other question is whether it's better to be at arguably the category leader (deal count not volume) vs one of the lowest BBs (so for US mega funds, you'd still be behind all the other higher BB candidates)?

 

OP - I would go for Barclays. One of the more experienced WSO monkeys mentioned that buyside recruiting is not as structured in Europe compared to the US, so I wouldn't worry about "just outside BB". Its up to you to actively approach the recruiters.

Nothing against Rothschild, they are a fantastic firm and have a stable culture (but many of your seniors are in banking for the long round so you get less support/advice re: buyside moves).

 
crusoe

ft.com/intl/cms/s/0/ef588b42-860a-11e4-b248-00144feabdc0.html#axzz3MFLzQl7Z" title="http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/0/ef588b42-860a-11e4-b248-00144feabdc0.html#axzz3MFLzQl7Z" rel="nofollow">http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/0/ef588b42-860a-11e4-...
do you guys even read the news these days?

"...the biggest question hanging over Barclays is whether it should spin off its struggling investment bank..."

I have to agree. I'd choose Roths, places like barcap are not full of happy people, go with stability and deal flow and back yourself to get the exit.

also, city > wharf and Roths offices are pash

"After you work on Wall Street it’s a choice, would you rather work at McDonalds or on the sell-side? I would choose McDonalds over the sell-side.” - David Tepper
 
UtilitiesBanker

I wonder how a bank that makes it to the top of US league tables and is on the top 5 -6 league table has a struggling investment bank..

because league tables are a revenue driven metric
"After you work on Wall Street it’s a choice, would you rather work at McDonalds or on the sell-side? I would choose McDonalds over the sell-side.” - David Tepper
 

It depends. I have worked in both boutiques and BB in Europe. In utilities which is the sector I cover boutiques tend to do asset transactions whilst BB work in the bigger transactions. This also happens because infra and utilities have a lot of financing attached to it. I think all comes down to the specific teams. Re your exit pops a person in BBs might have done more transactions than the counterpart in a boutique. Hope it helps

 

Between Roth and barc in Europe you can argue for both given R mad dealflow (especially PE transactions) but really in London CS vs Laz there js no debate. CS is a European powerhouse (better in Europe than the likes of Citi, b) while Lazard is far less prestigious in the UK vs NYC. Btw the ipad version of wso is not great. I cant ecen see my post

 

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