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I wouldn’t discount MM banks or foreign balance sheet banks. Solid places to lateral from or create a career at, and groups there can outperform BB in terms of comp and exits (though somewhat rare). Boutique to BB is possible, but less common since the people they take typically come from other BBs and UMM banks as you said. But you aren’t cooked. You can easily lateral up, but don’t discount the less “prestigious guys.” Once you’re on the desk you sometimes wish you focused on the bank itself rather than the prestige and exits elements.

 

I appreciate it. I am not someone who gets wrapped up in prestige, but more-so competitiveness. My main reason for wanting to start at a UMM/BB is that I would rather work backwards than forwards down the line in my career, so better exits would be ideal as opposed to having to lateral. I just get frustrated in that if I did everything on my resume just 1 year prior instead of being so unaware of IB recruiting during my freshman/sophomore year, I would have made life much easier on myself up to this point.

 

So you did a search fund and an unpaid banking internship where you sent outreach messages, or a real PE internship and real IB internship

 

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