Transferred to ECM
Hope everyone had a great new year's eve...wish mine was better. Yesterday, I received news that my corporate finance group will be downsized, and junior resources will be "reallocated to growth oriented divisions." I will be transferred to the global capital markets division. I never considered ECM as a career path, and I am pretty upset about this.
I am a 1st-year analyst at a mid-tier bulge bracket. I am concerned on two-fronts: (1) exit options and (2) pay. I was assured my bonus "shouldn't be affected"....(although the use of shouldn't worries me). Exit ops will be much different as most of the deal flow from my corp fin group came from PE firms. The reason I chose this bank was because the group I was placed in derived most deals from PEGs. I am interested in LBOs was looking for an exit to a PEG (retrospect bad choice).
What should I do? If I transfer to another bank I will be losing my signing bonus plus 6 months of accrued bonus. Should I stick it out until July?
Are there even opportunities for analysts with only .5 year experience?
Opinions appreciated.
To address your concerns: yes, exit opps at the ECM group of a BB will be slightly worse than if you were in the fin sponsors or M&A groups. PEs tend not to like analysts who have mostly done IPOs (at least, this is what recruiters at some of the top recruiting firms have told me).
So ECM is, as you've surmised, a step down from where you were previously.
In the current market environment, though, you won't be doing too many big LBOs and it's anyone's guess whether activity will pick up into 2008. So even if you transferred into a fin sponsor/PE-focused group, your deal flow wouldn't be that great.
As you've also said, opportunities for analysts with 0.5 years experience are also limited. You could try to lateral right now, but you'll probably "start over" as a first year, e.g. lose your 6 months experience, and most banks typically only hire laterals with at least a year of experience.
I would suggest sticking it out until July and then trying to lateral to a good industry group or M&A product group at another bank.
Just finished my first full day in ECM...and I am not liking it. I will most definitely quit at some point. Question is, will I be at a significant disadvantage looking at an analyst lateral come July...as I will only have 6 months experience in corp finance. Would I be better off looking now? How should I go about this...I am not seeing too many avenues for a class of 07 analyst...anyone have experience lateraling after half a year?
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