Why are some industries more prestigious?

Do not know if this is necessarily true, but TMT and HC are two extremely active industries. Almost impossible for an analyst at one of these groups at any reputable shop to not get in significant reps and have a very robust experience. These groups have really bad hours even by IB standards. The flip side is you come out with really strong technical skills, meaningful transaction experience and very in-demand industry experience (most hedge funds / PE shops are heavily concentrated in tech / HC). I imagine it is the case for tech, but HC requires pretty involved modelling and understanding of different operating models (pre-revenue biotech to mature EBITDA based businesses).

May be wrong, but I’ve actually heard Consumer and Industrials pigeonhole you less than HC. Honestly, prestige more comes from coverage areas being specifically good at a bank. For instance, GS FIG is pretty widely considered a large prestige group while doing FIG at some other banks can “pigeonhole” you. It varies bank by bank and group by group. A C&R banker at Barclays may have better exits than a HC banker at CS, it’s all firm specific 

I think it’s just about those who are known to be good at what they do. Like in the RX space, PJT and HL are very prestigious and respected. In the tech world probably the FAANG and those who do business with them (GS and MS maybe) have respect for being very good at technology and tech finance. I could be wrong but just some thoughts. Like Harvard is generally just known as being smart and good at academics in general so it is seen as a prestigious school. Generally people there are smart and strong in academics so they get the prestige / benefit of the doubt associated with it in my humble opinion

Yea that’s not really true and it really varies by bank. See GS FIG. Also some industries are popular just due to interest. Do you think there are as many people interested in mining as opposed to tech?