The ugly truth about investment banking exits?
Incoming analyst at MM that just finished up their SA and realizing that the promised land of "exit opps" isn't as promised or great as everyone made it out to be. Even before my summer, I started realizing that my hopes of going to large renowned HF or PE firm were largely dependant on going to a BB/EB. Much of the MM space doesn't exit that well at all (especially balance sheet banks) and HF opps are usually small and hard to find. At this point I'm not even sure if it's worth working 80-90 hour weeks to either stay in banking for at least nearly half a decade or exit to a random mm pe shop in the outskirts of chicago. Sorry if this is sounding doomery, but just wanted to see if my thoughts are shared among others in the space.
bump - can anyone confirm what the exit space looks like for MM firms? Even some of the bigger ones like Jefferies, WF, HL? I'd imagine some analysts get into top exits, or is it really cooked?
WF doesn’t exit at all into HF space from what I see (might just be self selection). They have LMM/MM PE as common buyside exits, but quite a lot of people stay within banking or exit to corpdev or out the industry completely. Few UMM exits here and there and maybe a couple MFPE for RE arms (through REGAL)
Who ever said PE exits were promised to all bankers, even shitty MM groups at foreign banks? If you’re bank doesn’t do a whole lot of advisory work for PE-backed companies, only the leveraged lending, then why would there be a pipeline? If you want a real chance at reputable PE exits, work hard and lateral to a BB or EB, or even a MM boutique that does a lot of sponsor-based advisory work - HL, Jeff, and WB should all provide solid exits.
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