Small Market IB Jobs -> Exit Opps?

Hey everyone,

What are your thoughts on possible exit opportunities when you are at a IB in a small market? A MM or boutique would get you a lot of opportunities if you were in LA/NYC/SF, but what about a MM or boutique in a smaller city? Granted if you work your tail off you can overcome a few barriers, but would you be doomed to work in that city for a longer time than you expected because of where you are?

18 Comments
 

Thanks for the advice. I'm currently in LA and I was applying to some tax positions (I'm a tax analyst with a finance background), and I saw that position in Southfield (on Plante & Moran's website). Knowing that its tough to jump into the IB industry, I was thinking I should just snatch it up but I was worried that it would be difficult for me to jump from there to a PE or BB gig 2-3 years later in a big city

 
Best Response

If you wanted to do IBD and set on it as your goal to reach PE...then work there for a year or two, either then try move to a boutique as associate in NYC or do B-School and get into BB IBD Associate and after another 2-3 years get into PE. By then you are still around 30. Still way much better then doing tax for the rest of your life.

 

The deals u were on.

If u worked at Goldman NYC and didn't get to work on a single deal (just pitching and other administrative work), then exit ops are pretty much out.

Most of the time, working at a regional office for a BB tends to get u exit ops within the region.

NYC is the hub where headhunters source majority of banking analysts. They source them for opportunities all over.

If u worked in another area noted for having banking activities such as LA/SF, you could get sourced for opps all over as well.

Now if u worked for a boutique or regional office in minnesota, ur exit ops would come from places near u.

------------ I'm making it up as I go along.
 

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