ER vs IB
Could anyone share their thoughts on whether it might be better to apply for ER instead of IB in London for the upcoming recruiting cycle? I’m equally interested in both fields, but believe I may have a better chance of standing out during the ER screening process. While it’s clear IB offers more seats, those seats are just as competitive.
I'm also curious about the overall state of the recruiting market for IB, particularly how many summer analysts receive return offers. It’s given we won’t have the recruiting market and seats available we had in 21 and 22, will recruiting be more similar to 23 and 24 for 25 internships and Analyst roles? Any insights would be greatly appreciated
Harder to get into ER than IB with just a bachelor’s unless you did CFA simultaneously
Thanks, what if I’ve got an MSc in Finance
What? This is complete nonsense.
A masters is complete nonsense?
In ER, you are competing with applicants that either have CFA or MFin/MiF making it more difficult for someone with only a bachelor’s to win the competition as opposed to IB where there’s a deeper and more diverse applicant pool.
Idk how we're meant to tell you whether or not you have a better chance standing out when you've told us nothing about yourself.
If you're asking if ER is as competitive as IB then probably yeah, maybe marginally less, all things considered - fewer seats, fewer applicants, most people are still from targets. It's not a gap I'd bet the house on. Semi target students may have slightly better odds in ER at the elite BBs where the IBD classes are full of targets (but most of these banks allow multiple applications anyway).
How many SAs receive an offer depends on the year and the bank and the quality of the particular class. It's usually more than 50% and its usually less than 100%. But no one knows what the 2025 pipeline is going to be looking like. Anecdotally, conversion in ER can be worse than that. But ER class sizes are relatively tiny so that isn't particularly indicative. Focus on being good, not conversion rates, because it's not a random selection and you cannot control headcount.
This is incredibly helpful! I'm currently finishing my internship in corporate banking, and while I wouldn’t mind continuing down this path, I’d regret not applying to investment banking off-cycles and ER roles. The more I look into ER, the more I realize my strengths and passion lie here. For my degree, I created an equity research report, pitched several stocks in my university's investment club, and developed a strong interest in following the markets, particularly a few companies within the automotive sector.
Since I haven’t done have any practical ER experience, would I be better off applying for off cycles or analyst roles?
ER analyst roles outside the direct internship pipeline are rare but not unheard of. At least you have some CB experience.
Off cycles are even more rare, I honestly don't know of a firm that does them consistently in ER. We've had like 1 off cycle intern in the past several years.
Again, you've told us nothing about you, so is there a reason you can't do summers?
In the same boat. Wanted to know if there are any technical skills which are needed for ER/IB which aren’t needed for the other.
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