Some Advice From Fellow Bankers

Dude you made a whole thread, on how banking is lame and stupid and useless.

While Corp Finance people are the warriors of financial world, and they truly help the company. You learn the best strategy etc...

How your goal is to be a CFO, and you can not wait to get out of banking and into the F100 side of things.

So you get exactly what you want, and your 2nd guessing, huh?

go with your gut. if you dont want to be in banking and think the industry is for you, then why stay given the option you have to leave for a position that prob suits you better

Yea I guess I just figured that when I was ready I would be looking and now it came in my lap. It is one of those fate or demise situations. I feel bad not giving at least a year too, but the offer seems pretty sweet.

Would this exit of only being here a half year burn an ultimate bridge to banking, in case I ever change my mind? I just want people to give me a neutral assessment.

If your heart's not in Banking and you're not eager to do PE (which is fading anyways), then I don't see any reason not to switch over.

You're getting what you want, 2-3 years of 9-5's and a lucrative salary followed by b-school sounds like a great deal to me. Only downside in my opinion is the job is in Boston.

Far as burning bridges in Banking..rest assured Boa is not gonna ask you to come back lol but I doubt it'll have a bearing if you decide to return as an Associate..

Did the job explicitly list "40 HOURS PER WEEK" as a benefit, or are you making an assumption here?

Agree that folks in industry work fewer hours than those in finance, but I would imagine at an F100 doing 2-3 deals per year, your hours would likely be north of 40 per week.

I think OP is just looking for confirmation for reversing course after getting that coveted IB job, so let's give it to him...

Go for it, tbroker you are making the right decision.

Seriously though, if you can give a decent answer as to why you want to go back to ibanking (post-MBA) after you quit pre-MBA I don't see why you wouldn't have a problem going back to IB. The problem is most of the stock answers will sound hollow ("excitement of deals" etc. etc.) because the inevitable "well why didn't you stick with boa then?" will follow.

Personally I would be concerned about the b-school admission rates from that program. You may want to talk to someone and get an idea for what kind of business schools people are going to after this program. Is it H/S/W or Darden/Johnson/Anderson (or worse)?

Well the guy said man you need to take it, yea it is less pay but we are cutting your hours in half with great perks.

The people from this compnay go to Top 1-10 MBA with a great MBA network.

I will probably use the credit crunch as an excuse in a few years lol, why not.

The one thing I do not see here and I guess bankers don't really think like this, is that when a company is giving all these perks for 2 years, sending you to a top10 Bschool. It will be very hard for them to let you go. In their mind they prolly will want you to be there for the next 20 years or so.

Sounds like this program, is to groom the future CFOs/Director of StratPlanning of the company. Especially if they are paying for your Bschool.

In any case, by taking the job it will be crystal clear to future employers that you dropped out of a 2-year analyst program after 6 months.

Dress it up any way you like, but people will recognize this. If you decide to return to IB down the road, I cannot imagine a recruiter who wouldn't be concerned by this.

This is a grooming position.

I agree that if I do enter banking the recruiters have a right to be concerned. However, if it has been 5 years and I have a top MBA under my belt, I hope, I cannot see it causing too many problems. Unless I said I left because I hated banking and swore to never do it again.

Also, if I accept this position and ever go back to the investment world I will probably go into HF, Asset Management, PE, etc.

Although I am going to PE when I am done, I do think corporate is a good option. However, my concern here is that if you find banking to be dull and easy, how in the world would you find this job stimulating? If anything, corporate is slower and less stimulating.

Equal exit opps to BoA is not saying much, and I doubt it even has that.

I do think you should take it though since it's pretty clear you don't like your job.

BoA had the sixth most market share in terms of IBD fees paid to the street last year... how could it not be a bulge bracket at this point, even though it is only 10 years old?

I should not have used the word fag, it is not right or nice so I do apologize.

However, I do not understand Poppings need to try and discredit BoA. Did you not get an offer for a summer internship or something? In the several months I have been here I have had a few cool deals in my group and I have seen a lot of good stuff overall. It may not be GS, ML, JPM, etc but it is what it is. I had an option to do a "true" BB put picked something more self rewarding for a few months and then had BoA.

I seriously think the deal value can be $10M or $10B there is something to be learned and hard work to be done everywhere. As long as you are trying hard, surrounded by good people, and getting a deal flow you are a banker. At the end of the day none of us will be remembered for anything we did as bankers. Most of us are here to move on as soon as we can. If a top HF tapped us after 2 weeks at a bank we would all probably leave because we all look out for number one while not putting anyone else down.

Though the road is easier for that guy who went to Harvard summered at GS and did the 2 year stint, but if you go to a small school work at a small firm you can do it too. Do not let anyone tell you you cannot accomplish your goals, just put your head down and do what you have to do and remain true to yourself and it all works.

tbroker, you're a complete idiot.

tbroker, if being a banking analyst isn't worthwhile for you then take this gig immediately.

I see a lot of focus from others on "top 10 MBA", having banking on your resume' etc. The truth is, after the first half year to a year of IBD you really don't learn very much. If you want to live your life laid out on a hierarchical bullshit path like a sheep, fine. If you go down this path, you're just another paper pushing Real Bankers' bitch (yes, analysts and associates aren't real bankers, just paper pushers).

The goal at your age is to learn as much as possible while not being saddled down with repetitive bullshit for your career. By all means, go for it. 40 hours a week is fantastic. You can study for the CFA,markets, etc. while enjoying your life.

I'd rather think for a living rather than to "do" for a living, don't you?

I have been doing banking for a couple of months, and have learnt more than a year of college. and the learning continues. everyday people learn new things. people who have been working 5 yrs still see new structures/ new types of deals as they progress. its all in your attitude. if you think you are a formatting monkey, you are, but if you see beyond that and try to understand whats going on, you learn a ton. you learn how ceos think, whats important to them....by listening intently to calls/ client visits (ive gone to quite a few already). the hours suck, that is absolutely true. but hell its a paid education program.

You said everyone seeks for a number one. Yet you turned down a BB for BoA.

I said looks out for number one, which is a saying meaning "look out for your best interest". I picked BoA because I wanted to go to Russia after college and do service, therefore I was looking out for number one.

Speaking as someone who spent his 20's at a Fortune 500, that's a pretty good deal for someone with your age & experience. I'd guess your actual hours will be about 50 - 60 per week, with the occaisional "hell week" when you're trying to close a deal or an integration is blowing up in your face (surprise! welcome to the dark side...it's not just enough to close a deal, you've got to make it turn a profit....).

Some thoughts:

• If you're currently in Charlotte, watch out for a jump in the cost of living when you go to Boston. 100K is "baller" cash in the south for someone your age - it goes much faster up there.

• Key point on salary growth...it varies a bit by industry, but corporate finance comp packages will max out way below banking, probably in the $200K - $300K range. You can make more but the list of potential positions gets very, very short after that.

• That being said, you've got a good chance of a semi-normal relationship with your family & kids in that role, particularly if you're able to stop travelling by your early thirties.

There's something to be said for the last point - I've seen the 80+ hour & 100% travel lifestyle trash a lot of marriages and families... what's the point of making the cash if you're just going to split it in a divorce and spent the next 20 years trying to fix your relationship with your kids?

The real question on money is not "how do I get the most" but rather "how do I get enough"... the offer you have, assuming salary growth & promotions, is probably on track to get you to "enough" income/assets by your early 30's...

(and at that point, especially if you're a dual income family, you get to experience the charm of the #$%$# AMT tax.....)

"I have been doing banking for a couple of months, and have learnt more than a year of college. and the learning continues. everyday people learn new things. people who have been working 5 yrs still see new structures/ new types of deals as they progress. its all in your attitude. if you think you are a formatting monkey, you are, but if you see beyond that and try to understand whats going on, you learn a ton. you learn how ceos think, whats important to them....by listening intently to calls/ client visits (ive gone to quite a few already). the hours suck, that is absolutely true. but hell its a paid education program."

I guess it depends on your goals and past education. I had the full CPA knowledge, three work summers, and the equivalent of a master's in finance before I did the banking analyst stint.

IMHO, learning through osmosis while saddled with hundreds of hours of bullshit is a pretty damn slow ordeal.

If you want to work in buyside investment management, tbroker's choice is the right one. The deal/sourcing/M&A/modeling etc. skills you learn in IBD are well transferable, but there are better ways to get exposed.

If you think you'll only be working a 40 hour week, you are on crack.

The one bit of due diligence I think OP should do is find out what he can about the internal politics of the organization. I had a friend who really wanted to do I-Banking, but didn't get an offer, so he did consulting for a while, then got a job in corp devt at a big industrial company. Now, the one good thing is that he got pitched to (as the buyer) for a lot of M&A deals, so he met a lot of bankers, but I don't know that the relationships were such that they would help all that much with his network down the road.

But I do know that what finally drove him crazy and made him leave his corp dev job is that the place was staffed with lifers -- relatively cautious types in the finance bureaucracy who were just looking to hold on and gain seniority. So that made the place stifling for him. These people tended to never follow through with innovation, were half-hearted about really doing deals that would change the organization, and a lot of their salaries just flattened out over time (even though he was not that senior, he made more money than some of the people who had been around longer), and they didn't care. They had a lot of stock, were hanging on and entrenching themselves, and were feeding the increasing mediocrity, and that's how it was going to stay. My friend's real problem is that, because he was ambitious, he was -> never - fully accepted and, even though he was really talented and personable, and outshone lots of people, he remained an outsider.

This is all just a long way to say that before you jump at a corporate job, you should do what you can to make sure there's some air circulating through the place, that talent is rewarded (not just longevity), and that the place has a growth/innovation mentality. If you decide you're going to get off the I-Banking path, then if at all possible, make sure you're going to a kick-ass place. If you stay in I-Banking, over time you'll meet more than your share of corporation types, and you'll have other opportunities to get off the merry go round and do something different, imho.

You're probably wondering what happened to my friend. Through connections he made in the corp dev job, he did eventually jump ship and join a very small, start-up boutique I-Bank. I think he's happier, but it's a fairly hand-to-mouth kind of enterprise, without the perks of being in a large organization. In the long run, I'm sure he'll do fine, but I don't know that his detour was really worth it. And because his old job didn't involve much travel or time away from the office, his ability to fly out of town for interviews, etc., was so limited that his job hunt took f-o-r-e-v-e-r, even after he decided he wanted out.

So just don't assume that, just because they're enthusiastic about you and are making supportive noises about your development, the organization is someplace that'll be worth your time, when you're already in a decent situation. Maybe you can tell them, "I really like the sound of the opportunity, I'd love to come in and meet some more people" (maybe peers, or ask to meet someone they consider is a rising star there -- then size that person up and see if you like what you see -- it should give you a good idea of what the organization values).