Crashing Out on Canadian Buy-Side
Why is it so damn hard to break into the Canadian buy side with top-tier IB experience.
Obviously this is a throw away account I use to browse at work so its basically empty, but I am starting to get frustrated with the state of the Canadian buy-side job market. Seriously, it is almost impossible to break into the role, even with multiple years of experience at top Canadian IBDs, advanced education, and networking out of the ass. You would think after multiple years of M&A experience someone would be able to enter into atleast a lower mid-market / mid-market buy-side role. It is not rocket science but most places require people with buy-side experience which completely rules out any sell-side bankers (I was told that in a final round interview when comparing me to a guy that took a 1 year gap to travel and only had experience at a PE portco)
Don't even get me started that if you are an associate or above, it is even harder because all the buy-side firms have started hiring analysts, and everyone thinks you are overqualified, a flight risk, or will not appreciate the compensation. IB is truly becoming a role in Canada where you either find something extremely early, or you get stuck there for your career. For such a perceived prestigious role, I shouldn't be feeling stuck in IBD.
The market and opportunities here are too restrictive and I don't mean just the competition. I am talking about the sheer structure of things. If you don't meet headhunter requirements to the exact letter you are not even considered for a first round interview. Additionally, there is just so few opportunities each year, that it is dominated by nepotism even more than my experience networking for my BB IBD job. Even corporate development seems the same way.
Everyone talks about how IB to buy-side is the optimal path, maybe in the US, but in Canada there are no opportunities to do so and its like hitting a brick wall. I get things are tough right now but its extremely discouraging given that you have the hustle, merits, and potential, but the Canadian landscape is so underdeveloped, there is no opportunities to do so.
Everyday it seems more and more like the only way to even break in is to take the risk with your own capital and just make your own buy-side firm to work for yourself rather than continuing to grind in IB and working for someone else.
Define top tier because idk if I would consider MMIB (big 5) to be top tier experience. Idk any GS/MS analysts struggling with buyside recruiting.
Fair enough - regardless Big 5 dominates the Canadian market and usually holds weight. Not in the US unless specifically at RBC or TD but I am not looking to go to the states
What's your background? I generally agree but dont think it should be this hard? You might be doing something wrong here
M&A team, generalist but on the older side of a traditional associate
Were you A2A promote? Im not sure how you're having so much difficulty man. It's a tough market but def should be able to get some traction with corp dev roles at the very least. Have you tried with the headhunters
This doesn’t make sense to me. What group are you in? I have a hard time believing someone at anything from a US BB/EB to the big 5 Canadian banks is having a hard time.
Sure it is typically done early, but I have seen so many pivots through networking.
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