Why no job is better than working for a boiler room

I’m seeing a lot of posts lately of students who couldn’t break into a BB/Big Five Canadian going for regional boutiques or even worse - boiler rooms. Let’s first break down what a boiler room is and why that’s a horrible idea.

A boiler room or “bucket” is a shop run by a bunch of sales guys who decided to open up an “investment bank”. These guys typically came from sales jobs in totally different industries or business development roles who decided that they one day wanted to open an “investment bank.” The shop is barely an investment bank because they typically do not understand the structure of an investment bank but gets a pass because what they’re doing constitutes investment banking, even if what they’re doing is on the level of cringe. The shop typically does pure M&A, and isn’t a full service investment bank with an ECM, and Institutional Equity Sales team. They also typically teach their analysts to cold call all day to owners. Take a look at firepower for example. The name sounds incredibly unprofessional, the CEO can’t even wear a fucking suit even though he’s running an “investment bank” and does not understand the basic etiquette of what an investment banker should behave like. I’ve seen the lowest of the lows in non target kids dress better than some of these “boiler room execs”. It’s ridiculous. If you think I’m being harsh just remember perception matters.

Now, I know what you’re thinking. If I go to one of these boiler rooms I can one day make a better shop. Wrong. Yes it’s possible, but the issue is simple. The industry is tiny, and if you’re at a boiler room with an MD who was a sales guy selling tires his entire life and decided to one day open an “investment bank” which is just a small medium sized enterprise convincing owners to sell, you’ll have no ability to lateral. All it takes is one google search on one of these companies and if they see clowns you’re done. It won’t matter if you know your stuff, they’ll associate you with them! You need to work at a Boutique run by ex bankers so that at least if you try and lateral the MD in your interview will say for example, “oh you worked for Mike? Great guy we were analysts together at x bank” or some shit, versus “wtf is a firepower? Sounds stupid.”

So if this is getting too long, let’s get to the point here. Don’t work for a boiler room, even if you get the experience working for one will not help your brand. You’ll be known as the guy who worked for a boiler room and that’s worse than not being in IB. If you can’t make a big five/ BB, work for a big 4 if you can or try an established boutique. Just not a boiler room. Be kinder to yourself and do not work for any of these places. They’re absolute scams and they do not deserve to be called “investment banks”.