UBS vs. CS vs. Citi for IBD

Hi all. I have a question regarding IBD. I have an offer for UBS M&A going into my junior summer, but I'm looking for full time recruiting post graduation. What are your thoughts on UBS vs. CS and Citi? Obviously, Citi is better, but are the career exit opportunities at UBS simply that much worse? UBS is clearly rebranding their investment banking focus in NY.

3 Comments
 

Branding isn't everthing; have a friend at Citi who's tried to lateral to another bank but the one that showed any interest is a MM with a weak rep.
Comes down to your deal experience (how many you actually closed as some may just be never ending on-off engagements at BB's).
If you really want to know about exit opps people here will tell you Yes, No and everything in between. I'd spend a lot of time on Linkedin and look up people who've had these specific BB's in their past experience and see where they are now; then decide if that's where you want to be in the future.

 
Most Helpful

^Precisely.

Piling on what Teddy said, in addition to looking at the "alums" from firms you're considering working at/pursuing a role at, I would also highly recommend you look at how they've performed relative to whatever metrics are pertinent to their core business; e.g, IB M&A-deal flow (volume and avg. deal size), complexity of deals, etc...; AM-relative performance to peers, relative performance to benchmark (if they have one), performance on a "P&L" basis - the last one might sound a bit odd/counterintuitive, but it was one of the best pieces of advice I've ever received came from a mentor who: * runs a top-ten SFO * founded a single-digit billion dollar hedge fund which he ran from '93-'08 when he retired (at age 45) * was one of the four founding partners at Farallon * used to work manage a portfolio at Steinhardt's fund He told me "you can't make money on relative returns, you've got to make it on the P&Ls" which had apparently been a piece of wisdom shared with him by Steinhardt in his time working for Mike.

TLDR: try to find ways to work for/with people who outperform their peers and you'll probably have solid exit opps and, barring committing a royal fuck-up or being the not-so-rare proverbial douche on the desk, almost always land on your feet.

"In order to be a really good investor, you need to be a little bit of a philosopher as well." -Dan Loeb  
 

Dignissimos ab rerum nihil quaerat labore. Velit provident voluptatum dolor sunt. Nostrum libero fugiat accusantium. Vero quia commodi suscipit.

Atque dolores qui beatae illum. Earum molestias nam modi dolores. Aspernatur sint qui fugiat dolor alias et. Earum ratione provident molestiae minima.

Et harum corporis aspernatur nihil. Libero quidem ex tenetur et. Expedita et saepe quos minus. Rerum dolor quidem voluptatem tenetur.

Career Advancement Opportunities

June 2026 Investment Banking

  • Evercore 01 99.4%
  • Moelis & Company 01 98.8%
  • JPMorgan 01 98.2%
  • Guggenheim Partners 01 97.7%
  • Morgan Stanley 07 97.1%

Overall Employee Satisfaction

June 2026 Investment Banking

  • Moelis & Company No 99.4%
  • Morgan Stanley 01 98.8%
  • Evercore 01 98.2%
  • BMO Capital Markets 12 97.6%
  • Banco Santander 01 97.1%

Professional Growth Opportunities

June 2026 Investment Banking

  • Moelis & Company No 99.4%
  • Evercore No 98.8%
  • Morgan Stanley 05 98.2%
  • JPMorgan No 97.7%
  • BMO Capital Markets 12 97.1%

Total Avg Compensation

June 2026 Investment Banking

  • Vice President (14) $434
  • Associates (43) $259
  • 3rd+ Year Analyst (8) $210
  • 2nd Year Analyst (22) $179
  • Intern/Summer Associate (13) $156
  • 1st Year Analyst (75) $151
  • Intern/Summer Analyst (67) $101
notes
16 IB Interviews Notes

“... there’s no excuse to not take advantage of the resources out there available to you. Best value for your $ are the...”

Leaderboard

1
redever's picture
redever
99.2
2
Secyh62's picture
Secyh62
99.0
3
BankonBanking's picture
BankonBanking
99.0
4
kanon's picture
kanon
99.0
5
CompBanker's picture
CompBanker
98.9
6
Betsy Massar's picture
Betsy Massar
98.9
7
DrApeman's picture
DrApeman
98.9
8
dosk17's picture
dosk17
98.9
9
GameTheory's picture
GameTheory
98.9
10
Mimbs's picture
Mimbs
98.8
success
From 10 rejections to 1 dream investment banking internship

“... I believe it was the single biggest reason why I ended up with an offer...”