Why does everyone want to work at a top bank?
Genuinely curious why does everyone want to work at a top bank? Is it because of compensation, prestige, exit opps? What is the difference between working at say GS and RBC?
Trending Content
Career Resources
GS pays less than a lot of MMs at the junior level
The difference between working at GS vs RBC - stronger deal experience, better brand name/prestige, better exit opps. Compensation is not that much of a factor because all of the top banks on the street pay roughly the same. There are many firms that will pay more than GS, but Goldman is Goldman.
That said, you will still get a great experience at a bank like RBC. The only point of comparing is if you have offers at both and need to decide. If so, yes, go with Goldman. Nonetheless, if you work at a BB/EB or Top MM, you've set yourself up for a great future.
At the end of the day - The ability to stroke ur ego by lowkey shitting on ur college peers and feel better about yourself sacrificing most of ur college life for a more "prestigious" job + the insecurity of what people might think of you for working at a "lesser" shop.
Plus, compensation. (in some cases does not apply e.g. choosing GS over other BB)
This is the type of champagne problem that ivy kids who went to prep schools have to deal with. As someone who came up broke, non-target and just hustled (not a genius), I'm just happy to be here. Practically speaking, there is only differences in extremes and it doesn't matter too much. Been stuck on this website since freshman year and the amount of pointless dick swinging is insane and fruitless; just get happy you got into the club bro.
Because my parents gave me conditional love and working at a top bank meets their standards.
As an Asian: because I wasn't smart enough in HS to study law or medicine so finance is my redemption path in the hopes that father and mother can finally be proud of me.
I haven't seen it answered in this way yet, so I'll chime in that ultimately it boils down to one word: optionality.
A lot of the people that go to Harvard/Stanford don't actually know what they want in life right away (which is a totally fine thing at that age), they simply know that there's a big tournament that they've been playing all their life with everyone else their age, that they are inherently really good at this tournament, and that they have been able to win basically every round of the tournament so far.
It's usually pretty obvious what the next round of the tournament is, if you choose to keep playing.
So when all the Harvard/Stanford students are sorted into their Econ major in undergrad, they realize that making it into GS or McKinsey is the prize in that tournament round, so they try to get into the best bank or consulting firm possible out of sheer competitive reflex.
They aren't ready to make a real career decision yet, so they decide to simply delay that decision until after they've made it to a further tournament round. They play the tournament because they know that winning each round creates a perch from which they can ultimately decide what they actually want to do. That perch gives them literal capital ($$$), social capital (prestige/brand), and professional capital (financial/analytical or other skill foundation) that creates the optionality to someday actually make a career decision.
Even if you you eventually want to start a tech startup or a launch a surf resort or work a middle American corporate job or create a suburban smoothie stand or become a YouTube vlogger, the credibility you have from the 2 years you spent at Harvard followed by the 2 years you spent at Goldman TMT are still going to be nearly universally valued by your future colleagues/employees/investors/creditors/audience.
The crazier thing is actually when people are sooo good at the tournament that they become absolutely addicted to the limitless optionality and never make an actual career decision - they simply just keep winning into the next round (which is great for some people, but not for everyone). They accumulate so much career capital that they don't realize that they've taken a completely risk-off path.
I would argue there exist plenty of people who do Harvard -> GS -> KKR -> HBS/GSB who don't make an actual life decision until the end of their MBA at 28.
Obviously at that point they get to make a pretty dope, enviable life decision, so I'm by no means trying to hate - I'm merely attempting to provide a bit of perspective on the original question.
As an aside, what's funnier still is that plenty of those people even after their MBA will try to just go into Product Marketing at Google, Partner Strategy at Apple, Corp Dev at Facebook, etc. - thereby accumulating another risk-off high-optionality path. Ultimately these people will jump from big tech and "take a risk" in the next blitzscaling startup like Uber - likely receiving an equity payout from that company's exit which is at most comparable to the size of one of their bonuses from their megafund days.
In conclusion: If you are the rare breed that knows you want to be a career banker, go to the bank that's going to develop your skills. If you want to continue to delay your decision and compete in the tournament, go to Goldman Sachs.
BOCTAOE
Like everyone has said above, everyone is competitive and wants to be at the top because they hear of people who are at that level and how "successful" and "cool" they are so they believe that in order for them to be the most successful and accomplished, they need to be at that level. It's truly crazy how many people are actually just doing all of this just to get to the top when they really don't have any genuine desire for what they are doing. I know a lot of associates and VPs at my firm who repeatedly say they have no idea what they want to do with their lives but because they are doing well at their current jobs and making good money, they might end up doing IB forever.
The dream takes place at B-bar on a nice summer Saturday during intern season. After hours of being introduced to person after person who have internships at X/Y/Z banks, you inevitably bite your tongue and wait for someone to ask you with an air of pompousness "What do YOU do in the city". You coolly take a sip of your vodka soda and answer, "Oh i'm in banking. Goldman."
OP, on an unrelated question, I also often wonder why people want to date hot girls vs un-hot girls? Is it because of better sex, prestige, exit ops?