Urgent Help Needed With Offer Decision!! Corporate Banking at BB or IBD at a MM boutique?

Take IB Risk at top BB (i.e. JPMorgan). It's more front-office than you might think. Plus lots of networking opportunities with IB professionals.

Thanks for the quick reply! I am just wondering though -- wouldn't corporate banking at a place like Citi give me better exit ops than JP IB risk since it's technically front office?

I vote MM IBD, it's the specific work experience you're looking to get, possible to lateral into a BB later

what kind of MM? is it something like...jef, hlhz, or something like imperial or lincoln?

Whatever you do, do not do corporate banking. It will teach you few transferable skills at the junior level and, if you're motivated, you will become very frustrated with the people you work with because they refuse to work past 5. Plus you'll be working on crap like lockboxes and procurement cards rather than M&A or IPOs.

Offer 1: Corporate Banking at top BB Offer 2: IB Risk at top BB Offer 3: IBD at very average MM shop

It depends what you want to do. IBD at an average MM will give you good experience in regards to corporate finance/advisory in the traditional sense and maybe if you do well enough to have an opportunity to go PE/HF. Against popular belief you dont need to go to a top BB, top group to get into HF/PE (abeit it makes it easier). IB Risk if you want to be a risk manager or have exposure to the operational side of the deal and financing. Corporate banking will give you a diverse exposure to all that is banking and more relationship manager oriented. Your not necessarily building the models or executing but you get a more relationship-oriented view of clients. It also depends on what the group is doing and their focus. You can have a IBD group at an MM that does tech-only equity financings. Conversely you can be in a corporate banking coverage team that is helping with a large client refinancing their debt.

if you want to do IBD do IBD period.

very hard to lateral from risk to front office. don't do it.

corporate banking at some bb's are most like ibd, whereas at others it's pure b/s. Really depends on the bank. i'd probably go for mm ibd

Hi everyone,

Thanks for the really helpful input. Just to clarify, the MM IBD is on the west coast and is closer to the level of JMP Securities (aka something most people have never heard of). I am just worried that even though I will get actual IBD experience at the MM boutique, 2 or 3 years down the line when I want to jump into PE or go to business school I won't be able to get into a top place.

For the b-school, it might be nice to have a BB name, but it also matters what you do in the role. I can see Offer 1 (Corporate) being alright for B-School, but would place Risk as a last choice.

For PE, your best bet should be the IBD MM, assuming this MM will offer a lot of modeling and deal experience. Or at the very least, after a year you could potentially lateral to a BB or larger bank, and then make a jump for PE afterwards if you are so concerned about getting into a 'top' place. You won't get into a megafund from an average MM shop, but you might be able to find something in MM PE - which has a number of pluses.

MM IBD

We say this at least once a week. If you want banking, do banking. If you want to masturbate over the logo on your business card, then go have fun being a commercial banker.

I would go to the MM IBD. IBD is IBD at the end of the day. If its MM and reasonable, it should be legit.

^^ Lincoln is actually a very very good shop.

Let me weigh in.

I agree with the do banking sentiment. Issue is this. If you go to a smaller MM firm you are going to get limited exposure and probably stay within a MM sphere until B school. If you do corp banking at a large name bank you could possibly lateral to another BB bank in IBD or DCM or you could go to a MM shop. It really depends on how MM this bank is.

anthony is right. also corp banking is not commercial banking