WSO bias against BBs and towards boutiques?

keep hearing BAML, DB, UBS, Barcap and other solid solid bulge brackets as "terrible" or a "sinking ship" on here as well as huge hype ups of Greenhill, Lazard, Evercore, etc. as even better than GS/MS.

sounds a bit skewed to me as I'm having trouble believing that a kid from EVR/GHL is really THAT much better than a kid at BAML IBD. maybe slightly better but the "EVR is amazing while BAML is shit" belief on here strikes me as very very far from reality

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Don't listen to these idiots. It seems to be that either you work for GS TMT/MS M&A or your a loser. I willing to bet that 99% of these kids do not and never will work in the industry. Any of the BB's listed above are fine places to work with. Don't listen to these ass clowns.

 
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While I always give the disclaimer that I don't and have never worked in IBD, I totally agree with you that it's gotten a bit out of hand in WSO. I work in China, and I can tell you that if you wanted to come to emerging markets and work in PE or at a HF you'd be way, way better off coming out of Barcap or UBS then you would be out of Evercore, Moelis or Greenhill. If you want to be an investment banker in the U.S. forever than perhaps you'll learn more starting at those smaller firms (I understand the appeal and cultural advantages, etc.), but if you're looking to a big player globally and so forth... you're much better off at a huge, internationally renowned wall street powerhouse like UBS or DB, etc.

 
International PympWhile I always give the disclaimer that I don't and have never worked in IBD, I totally agree with you that it's gotten a bit out of hand in WSO. I work in China, and I can tell you that if you wanted to come to emerging markets and work in PE or at a HF you'd be way, way better off coming out of Barcap or UBS then you would be out of Evercore, Moelis or Greenhill. If you want to be an investment banker in the U.S. forever than perhaps you'll learn more starting at those smaller firms (I understand the appeal and cultural advantages, etc.), but if you're looking to a big player globally and so forth... you're much better off at a huge, internationally renowned wall street powerhouse like UBS or DB, etc.

This.

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Status_Quo
International PympWhile I always give the disclaimer that I don't and have never worked in IBD, I totally agree with you that it's gotten a bit out of hand in WSO. I work in China, and I can tell you that if you wanted to come to emerging markets and work in PE or at a HF you'd be way, way better off coming out of Barcap or UBS then you would be out of Evercore, Moelis or Greenhill. If you want to be an investment banker in the U.S. forever than perhaps you'll learn more starting at those smaller firms (I understand the appeal and cultural advantages, etc.), but if you're looking to a big player globally and so forth... you're much better off at a huge, internationally renowned wall street powerhouse like UBS or DB, etc.

This.

Related to this, a lot of people here are 100% focused on finance except when they're really all just would-be entrepreneurs. Despite the refrain that you need to be interning, managing your trading account, kissing up to alums, etc from the womb, a lot of people end up in finance out of undergrad because it's high-paying and prestigious, not because they've mapped out the number of days till they make it to a megafund.

A lot of the people who start out as analysts won't end up M&A MDs or PE partners. Lots of people leave finance after a while and having Morgan Stanley or Goldman Sachs will serve you better in the broader business community than Evercore or Greenhill.

There have been many great comebacks throughout history. Jesus was dead but then came back as an all-powerful God-Zombie.
 

^jims,

Not entirely correct. In general, it is great to work for any BB but there are better/worse. There are 2 reasons: deal execution and culture.

Some banks have great cultures think JPM, MS, GS, EVR,GHL. They've got great personnel and some groups or desks there, are close to legendary. Many of the BBs such as BAML, Citi, Nomura are in rebuilding right now and don't have strong culture yet. It matters though.

Some banks are better at executing deals and so they end up on highest profiled deals, which are often most interesting and provide the best experience. This year top boutiques have participated in top deals together with GS, MS, JPM.

Of course other BBs have much to offer as well and they are usually present at top deals but with lesser roles. So it's not like they are terrible but just a little behind the top firms, just like in any other industry.

Things can change any given year, however.

Do what you want not what you can!
 

Bossman I agree with your post. However there are some people on this forum who believe that you are better of not working in investment banking , than working for UBS, Barcap, etc. This is the issue that pisses me off.

 

^agree with both of you guys... but also, to go farther, the GS over Evercore/GHL is pretty obvious. What's less obvious, to some people on this forum, is that DB, UBS or Barcap would also look better than Evercore/GHL for jobs outside of high finance and/or outside of America. If you're talking about jobs in Asia/Europe, then it's possible that jobs at HSBC, Nomura, Standard Charter, Soc Gen, BNP, etc. would look better too.

 

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