What is ECM/DCM like?

Hey everyone, I wanted to see what everyone thinks of a long-term career in ECM/DCM for someone with no interest in pursuing PE opportunities and rather staying in banking.

What are the hours like for Analysts, Associates, and VPs? Could you ever expect 60 or fewer hours with seniority? Are the hours/lifestyle generally closer to Biglaw/Management Consulting where you get weekends off as well as leaving before 7-8 most days or IB where all-nighters and weekends occur commonly?

Is it a sustainable lifestyle or does it still heavily dig into your personal life? Saw someone say in the last thread one of their MDs worked 8-6 in DCM is this accurate or some extreme circumstance?

Also as a side question, how much does compensation get affected when compared to M&A and Industry groups at higher levels (VP and up)

What do you guys think?

Add comment

Start Discussion

23 Comments

abacab

IB

5y

Most Helpful

Sitting at coverage side, some general observation around DCM/ECM

At junior level, I’m not sure you learn much that you can take somewhere else. Market update pages, some pricing, some diligence or coordinating with other banks / teams. But you are not really learning specific about companies or models
The path seemed unclear in the middle. Most teams had a MD who was there for decades and he would have some analyst crank out the above pages or do the dirty work, but there is no clear cut path for analysts to make MDs. Unlike in coverage or M&A, most analysts got shuffled around to move up or didn’t really have a path to associate. Even worse as you move up more. Lifestyle might be better eventually, but that assumes you can ever get there
Hours are better. Hard to find them after like 8pm. Weekend work felt like Sunday from home
Clear difference between people who do Lev Fin vs DCM. Products are more complex, learning more modeling. There is more demand to move you up. If you wanted to be more market / product like, go for lev fin vs DCM

My bank has strong platform across all 3.

Reply

Quote

Report

Other

Authored by: Certified Investment Banking Professional - DirectorCertified Investment Banking Pro

Winnfield

O

5y

Skills development: both are poor. DCM is a little better (at least a bit of bond math).
Exit options: see above - both are limited. DCM would mostly lead to Treasury roles, and on a blue moon, to some kind of investment grade credit fund. ECM mainly to Investor Relations at a corporate. Quite often, people from both try to switch to either real banking (IBD, Lev Fin) or real markets (S&T world), as there's virtually no demand from the buyside for the CM skillset.
Career path within a bank: ECM is quite solid, DCM is less clear.
Compensation: both are solid (not as good as IBD but MDs still make 7 figures and Senior Associates/junior-mid VPs are still making around $300k; ECM has an edge, but also more beta so job security is a little worse, and on a risk-adjusted basis, probably about the same.
Hours: DCM tends to be significantly better. Very few people stay past 9pm in DCM. In ECM, that's usually when the lucky ones start getting out. Some ECM groups have IBD hours (see next point).
Culture: ECM are banker-wannabes. DCM is a little closer to the S&T culture, but a bit more organized and polished.