Financial Sponsors Coverage - Advice on moving laterally to BB

Hello Monkeys!

This is my first post on WSO so bare with me if I make any rookie mistakes! I wanted to get people's perspective / advice on moving laterally to a BB firm, specifically in Financial Sponsor coverage, from my current gig at a large international bank. My worry is that the higher up I progress (currently an Associate, but up for VP soon), the harder it will be to make the move. I have good experience (detailed below) and have a lot of friends moving into VP roles at top MM and BB PE firms and would like to be a career sponsor banker now that I've been around the block (again, see background below) and have contacts that are moving into more senior roles in the PE world. My current gig isn't bad; however, I'd like to move up market within the leveraged loan world where deals are a bit larger (i.e. $150MM vs. $500+MM) and more frequent in nature (done 3-4 deals in the 2 years I've been here). Any advice, contacts or similar experiences is much appreciated. Thanks monkeys!

Background

Analyst program at top MM firm (think Jefferies, William Blair, etc.) Associate program at top leveraged finance buyside ship (think GSO, Ares, Oaktree, etc.) Currently a senior Associate in leveraged finance at large European bank (think HSBC, BNP Paribas, Soc Gen, etc.)

10 Comments
 

How come you don't get in as 3rd year VP? 1st year Associate or 2nd would be quite low.. but I guess it is still a buyers' market.....

 

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