Which Bank for Career Bankers?

Can someone provide me with a comprehensive list of investment banks for current undergrad students who are interested in becoming a career banker?

I am deadset on Investment Banking and I just need to know which banks are the best for a career banker.

28 Comments
 

You can have a "career" at any banking firm that remains in business for the duration of your "career." As such, this is kind of a silly question to ask without providing criteria about what you are looking for in an Investment Banking career.....

What kind of banking do you want to focus on? Product or Coverage? Which Product? M&A? Equity? Debt? Corporate Derivatives? What industry do you want to cover? Financial Institutions? TMT? Healthcare?

Where do you want to live long term? Milwaukee? Dallas? SF? NY? Chicago? Abroad?

What size deals do you want to do? Mega Deals? MM? LMM?

Answers to all of these questions will determine which is the best bank for your "career". Most undergraduates can't answer these questions as they don't have a great understanding of all of their facets. As such, they try to land in the most prestigious groups assuming that it will give them the greatest range of exit opportunities.

 

Thank you for explaining all of this to me. To clarify, I want to live in NYC until 60 years of age and work in whatever bank gives me the most pay. In other words, I'm fine with whatever group I'm placed in and whether it's a BB, MM, or EB.

To repeat, the only restrictions are:

  1. NYC
  2. Most Pay
 

At a senior level, pay is going to be largely determined by the amount of revenue you bring in. It's tough to say "This specific bank pays their MDs more". Obviously, if a bank is in trouble, they'll cut on bonuses for senior bankers, but if you're raking in deals left and right, you're going to get calls from other banks trying to hire you away with lucrative compensation packages.

I think I remember Jefferies hiring away a Citi energy MD (or maybe other way around) and he got some sort of crazy $30m comp package over 2 years. If someone remembers the exact name of the guy, feel free to chime in. Think it was back in 2013.

 

Just bringing in a bit of old man wisdom here... what you value most (location, pay, exit opportunities, etc.) will change drastically once you're on the job and as you get further from college. I wouldn't worry to much about optimizing your career for the 40 year long-term. I know guys who went into banking out of undergrad where they were sure they would be career bankers, and everybody around them was sure they would be career bankers (myself included), yet they are already working with one foot out the door.

 
Most Helpful

Centerview is the best EB for career bankers as they specifically want their analysts to stay and the pay is great. PWP also has a great infrastructure for A2A promotes. You'll also get great pay at Evercore, PJT, Moelis, etc but the culture at those firms is less A2A promote friendly than Centerview and PWP. You obviously still can stay long term, it's just not normal. Any BB or MM is also an option, but you seem to be very worried about level of pay which will invariably be better at the EBs at a given level. That said, handicapping your likelihood of making it to the highest levels of any given firm is tough, so you need to try to focus on where you think you'll fit best and where your skills will be the most appreciated in terms of coverage and product.

Esentially, you have a lot of options. I would always suggest Centerview for wannabe career M&A bankers, but it's more complicated than that and goals change regularly in your 20s. So try and do some real soul searching.

 

I guess there are a good number of details that you have omitted which are quite important. Are you attending a target? Do you plan on an MBA? What internships have you done? Do you have any criteria for the size of the bank? How about location? What type of culture are you looking for? What do you plan on doing (i.e. M&A, LevFin, etc.) For BB, I guess you can't really go wrong with the big names (JPM, BAML, GS, etc.) For MM, Jefferies, Houlihan Lokey, Piper Jaffray For EB, Lazard, Rothschild, PJT Since you seem to care about salary so much, you can refer this post about salaries. https://www.wallstreetoasis.com/forums/2017-investment-banking-report-8…

Made ya look
 

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