Why Aren't Elite Boutiques Household Names?
Apologies if this is an ignorant question --
I recently chatted with some extended family who were around my age, and the conversation led to career stuff. The few people I was talking with were all business/finance/econ majors at top 50 USNews schools, yet none of them had ever heard of any of the elite boutiques (I'd thrown out Lazard, Evercore, Centerview, Moelis).
Given that even business students haven't heard of these firms, will elite boutiques ever become household names? Lazard has been around longer than Goldman and is relatively large by headcount and global presence, Evercore is growing a ton -- why aren't they more publicly known?
classic nontargets
Commercial banking is more popular than advisory or restructuring. It is as simple as that.
This.
I think it’s because lots of people just don’t care because it’s not part of their daily life or relevant to them. I don’t think I could name 10 current NHL players and I live in the state of hockey. Also couldn’t tell you the name of a BTS song or a member of the group. My dad has no idea who Charli D’Amelio is. My brother can’t name a single breed of cat and I doubt my sister could point out Nigeria on a map even though she posted about their police on her Instagram story multiple times. Hell I doubt she could point out Wyoming and she likes to travel.
I mean if you want, I can help her with pointing it out
Lmao what is up with girls posting these stories on Instagram? I saw a post titled "Slide left to see what's happening in South Africa" and there was a picture of 1980s apartheid.
Because no one cares except college kids
If you need to know you’ll know. That’s almost sexy and mysterious in it of itself.
Hmmm do these hardo freshman who will end up doing KPMG audit really need to know what Evercore is...? Because they do....
...no they don't need to know. Why would someone doing auditing at KPMG even want to know what the IB Boutiques are? (Aside from knowing so they can stroke your ago and give you validation for working at an EB?)
They're not well known, quite simply, because they are not that relevant for 95% of businesses (business oriented roles). I can guarantee you, the majority of corporate America will not know who advised their employer on a transaction. There are also loads of business students that pursue other career paths, and so naturally, wouldn't even have considered banking and the variety of employers that exist within the sector.
I'm not in any way putting down the prestige or quality of EB's, it's just that to most people they won't need to come across them over the course of their education or career.
Because most people dont need to know about IB. Most people wouldnt be able to name the top corporate law firms, investment firms, or top consulting firms either. They dont work with them on a frequent basis and it’s not very important to them.
These are large and reputable companies in banking. But I can tell you that if you’re pursuing a trading, Corp finance, consulting, auditing, or anything literally outside of a banking career those names won’t be in your regular discussion, maybe LazAM. And another poster said it above but it’s true if you’re at a non-target those firms make no efforts to put their names in your discussions. I went to a non-target and didn’t hear of any of those firms until post-undergrad, so I get it. I was not pursuing banking in any fashion during my undergrad years because they didn’t come on site. Trading, AM, and consulting firms did and those were the names I knew along with their competitors. I’m in banking now but went to a non-target, and thus had to get here in a non-traditional manner.
I'm also coming from a non-traditional background similar to yours. Would love to learn more about your experience on this, while I'm still in the process of recruiting!
feel free to pm me
Bubba Gump Shrimp Co. - It’s a household name
because firms in finance mostly operate behind the scenes and aren't front and centre in most people's lives. can't expect most people to know about a field that they literally never come in contact with personally or professionally.
like hell man, some firms don't even have websites and if they do it's their fucking logo and nothing else. the only folks that give a shit are hardo kids on the high finance recruiting circuit, professionals in these fields, corporate leaders looking to raise money / engage in a deal, service providers that work with these firms a lot or people on LP investment committees deciding who to funnel money to.
Because they didn’t cause the financial crisis
Because people know Goldman, Morgan Stanley, Lehman, Merrill etc from either the financial crisis or from using the wealth management/brokerage side of things. Nobody outside of the business work gives two shits about M&A advisory or restructuring.
97% of the population gives zero fucks about anything IB-related because it has zero significance in their lives.
.
Be the change you want to see in the world
As much as it may hurt your prestige fueled ego, the vast population will assume the guy doing back office at Goldman has a better job than someone in a top group at Centerview
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