Spoke to a couple analysts during the recruiting process who all said they chose to start in NY because it's important to be at a firm's headquarters when you first start off. What are the pros of starting at the HQ vs a strong "regional" office? I'll be doing my summer internship at a at a West Coast BB (think CS LA, MS Menlo) so interested to see if there are any cons of being there vs in a NY office.
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So it really depends. The main advantage of New York is deal flow and later on in your career, lateral mobility. It is also better for networking. However, regional offices particularly in California for tech, are better for certain groups. Another example is D.C. for aerospace and military development or Texas for oil.
In the words of Michael Lewis, if you are promoted to be the head of anything regional, it’s because you weren’t wanted as the head of the HQ...
What I’m trying to say is, some banks have exceptional bankers in regional officers, but odds are the best bankers are in NY. They are the ones who become “Head of M&A America” or “Co-Head of Healthcare.” Exceptions are Tech and Energy, of course. Exposure to the people who will call the shots above you (even if you exit to PE) is key.
I always get monkey shits for saying this but I still use some of my relationships from IB in my current role, and it’s a lot easier to get shit done when the head of, idk, healthcare leveraged finance knows me by name cuz he saw my name pop up in his email chains for 2 years.
Not sure I agree with this. Plenty of top notch regional bankers / heads of groups, particularly now that sectors are very regional as well. If you want to work in tech, be in SF, whether that’s on the banking side or investing side. People are generally in a specific region for a reason, whether it is personal, sector expertise, regional expertise etc.
Didn’t I literally say “What I'm trying to say is, some banks have exceptional bankers in regional officers, but odds are the best bankers are in NY. They are the ones who become "Head of M&A America" or "Co-Head of Healthcare." Exceptions are Tech and Energy, of course.”
Of course there are great bankers elsewhere other than NY and of course some group heads are in regional officers (specially tech, like I said already). Now, name a single head of M&A at a BB that is not in NY. I’ll wait.
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as another person mentioned, being at the HQ is nice because you have a better chance to develop relationships with leadership. when I see people come from our satellite offices, they are desperately networking and trying to develop those relationships that the folks located at the HQ already have just by being around.
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