Shitting on other banks… why?

Before anyone gets on my head, I want to say I will be at JPM, so it’s not like I’m at one of the banks that people clown on here all the time.
But without being a dickhead I’m just genuinely curious as to why people on here will shit on other banks that may not be EBs or BBs, but still IBD roles. Is it mostly just due how many more opportunities open up from the EBs and BBs or other well known banks?
I’ve seen many people around me get upset when they couldn’t land offers at say GS or MS, even though they may have got Barclay’s or Citi (I know Citi has a bad rep but let’s be real, getting into IBD anywhere is hard enough). And it makes no sense to me, because any single offer is such a great accomplishment in my eyes.
But I’m just wondering. Maybe those of you who are like this and care a lot about name could give your thoughts as to why you feel that way. And maybe others who agree. Just curious and want to know how others on here think.

 
Most Helpful

Because we’re insecure and derive our sense of self worth from the logo on our linkedins 

 

There is no reason for Citi to have a bad rep to be honest, the first time I ever saw anything negative about the bank (other than the fat-fingered trade & money wired to the wrong account lol) was when I made an account on here to track applications, and even then it was only from like one or two rejects. Literally one of the big conglomerates that absolutely dominated until JPM overtook it. Absolutely unrivaled in Global Treasury/Transaction Banking, corporate banking, DCM (Citi is the bond house to be at), structured finance. What exactly is all the fuss about?

 

I interned at Citi in IBD (well, it used to be in IBD, now it sits in a "specialized group") in a products group, didn't work more than 52 hours or so in a week. I would regularly leave at around 1930-2000 and the entire desk would have gone home (they came in at around past 9am). Great hours, decent culture.

I was in London, though, only thing that I do not LIKE is the pressure to be buddy-buddy with your colleagues. Why? I don't care about that. Let me just go to work, do the job, work with my colleagues cordially, then go home and talk to my real friends. Sometimes I wish I was fluent in French so I could work in a French office (they dont do this shit), don't like this buddy-buddy culture tbh

so yeah you're right, every bank has bad hours/weird culture, depends on the group

 

Have heard similar comments in the past - is there actually something differentiated about Citi's approach to treasury or do they just have a bunch of heavy hitters with connections? I know when I was in banking, the counterparties for treasury were different from the CFO/CorpDev teams and decisions for allocations there are usually made by someone more mid level.

 

People insecure because their retard friends outside of finance think they're a bank teller

My retard friend is actually a bank teller and shits on me for working at Citi ECM /: 

 

every bank has some team with toxic culture. at least at Citi they don't track you at your desk or demand you tell them what days you're working from home, unlike some other banks.

 

This is the best way to look at it. At the end of the day we are treating our careers like a sport and we want to play for the best team possible. 

In terms of compensation and progression it's not that deep

 

Because as the top commenter said, people are insecure fucks. They have low self esteem so derive what little they have from people’s reaction to them mentioning what bank they work at…

 

There’s a lot of people who haven’t achieved much in their life and buy into the “prestige” narrative. Gives people who otherwise don’t have a natural feeling of self-worth something to look hang their hat on. I’m at one of the top groups at an EB and there’s definitely a split in the analyst class of people who are humble understand how lucky they are, and those who think they magically have 11 inch cocks.

 

If the non-targets on here were smarter (or perhaps many are already implementing this strategy), they would target the banks that are always getting thrown under the bus. All the time I see hate thrown at the same 5-10 banks and it does actually impact the number of interested candidates reaching out to those institutions. Shit-talking on this website has a bigger impact on those bank's reps than anyone really seems to acknowledge. And it goes both ways, for both low deal flow / bad bonuses AND for bad hours. Usually the firms with bad hours have top tier comp so they are impacted less (e.g., Moelis), but they are nevertheless impacted to an extent. 

Remember when the "DB is not a BB" started going around a few years ago? I personally know someone who applied to DB without understanding the importance of networking (he did zero across all IBs) and got a FT offer from DB with NO relevant experience and from a complete non-target. He received an IBD offer at one of the largest global investment banks simply because it was so memed that people stopped applying. What is he doing now? He exited to PE, and is now at one of the most coveted MFs frequently referenced on this site.

When I see people saying it is impossible to get into IBD from a non-target I smh. I always wonder if these same people targeted <50 IBD professional banks, the RBCs / Citis / DBs and other banks constantly shit-talked, or if theyre just applying JPM / GS / MS then crying when they get beat out by a bunch of HYP kids.  

 

Somehow, in a post which didn't mention them at all, you still managed to include "non-targets" as the centerpiece of your block of text.

 

Do you not see the relevancy? Have you noticed how many non-targets have been talking about how hard it is to break in, especially given general economic uncertainty? The post was intended to provide guidance on a never-talked about approach to getting into IBD. It was meant to be helpful. Is all of that lost on you?

The whole post is about how unnecessary it is that certain banks get trash-talked on a regular basis. I brought up the fact that this is a good way to get to work at a top investment bank, and how it is an approach many non-targets trying to break in should consider. 

 

It's because you're a well-balanced human being that has a sense of self-worth that doesn't revolve around prestige. The reality is that people should just be happy to have a job on Wall Street to pay their bills. No one in the real world really cares where they work outside of a few other hardos and maybe their parents. It won't matter a few years into your career anyway. No one will really care about your first job out of college. Maybe they think the bank they got a job at is their greatest accomplishment up to that point in their lives, I don't know, but you're sane, they're not.

 

It comes down to the fact that once you’re a few years into your career, your track record as a professional begins to stand on its own and a great deal sheet from a great jr banker with a citi logo will be held in higher regard than a bad deal sheet with a centerview logo on it. However, for the prospects/ summers /first years that make up majority of account, the only point of differentiation is the logo  

 

It’s because this board is filled with competitive, type As.

For example, I always think it’s so stupid and ludicrous for sports talking heads to blast NFL QBs after a bad game, when only like 300 people in the entire world could do a serviceable job.

So yes, working a Baird is awesome compared to 99% of college grads, but people her are overachievers and technically working at Goldman is more impressive.

 

Smoke Frog

So yes, working a Baird is awesome compared to 99% of college grads

Idk...Baird? I would take SWE or a LMM PE fund. Hell, even Big 3 Management Consulting would be more prestigious. Not trying to nitpick but I would say that Baird is only awesome compared to about 96.9% of college grad jobs. It may used to have been awesome compared to 99% of jobs, but given the way COL is inflating and the FAANG opportunities in SWE, I think we're generous to say it's awesome compared to anything over 97% of all other jobs. Now if we were talking about Blair or Jefferies I would say you're looking at about 98% superiority to other jobs. Centerview and FT Partners may be better than 99% of jobs but only if you end up in their M&A groups. Anyone is Cap Markets instead of M&A is only looking at ~94.5% superiority. Not to nitpick, but anyone who went to a Top Tier Division 1A target or even Top Tier Division 1B target school knows this stuff. 

 

Love looking at these forums when someone goes "Hell even Big 3 consulting would be more prestigious" when the reality is there are way more EB/BB spots then there are MBB lol Not to mention half of EB/BB guys end up in CorpDev. IB has higher comp/more hours, with great exits into PE/VC/HF and then pretty much just CorpDev. MBB has lower comp/better hours with much more variety in terms of exit ops; if you're at NYC/SF/CHI it's also completely reasonable to get UMM/MF PE as well lol you fell exactly into what this post is about my guy...

 

In the U.K. at least it’s the same for universities, everyone shits on each others’ university offers when you’re still at school but when you graduate no one gives a fuck and you realise none of it really matters. This leads me to suspect that it stems from the same teenage insecurity that comes from a bunch of type A virgins who have yet to prove themselves in any meaningful way (makes sense given all the “how to talk to women” posts you see here). If you haven’t got any accomplishments of your own I guess it’s easy to point to a league table/political party/football team/nation that you are vaguely connected to and try to wring some pride out of that.

Also FWIW to anyone reading worried about the bank they’re going to, I was at Citi. Was relatively political and we worked hard, but I suspect no more or less than anywhere else. I learned a tonne and got a job at a fund that a load of prospects get rigid about both on here and Instagram. Wherever you go and whatever team just remember that if you’re in this field you’re probably earning a multiple of the national salary and will also probably never have to worry about money in your life.

 

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