Is F100 really a lot better than non-IB/S&T BB Finance Positions?

Is F100 really a lot better than non-IB/ST BB Finance Positions?

Most people at my school consider Financial Analyst and Rotational Programs at F100 companies (Verizon, 3M, P&G, Microsoft, J&J) to be great jobs out of undergrad. Great work-life balance, great brand name, interesting work, and strong start to a career.

However, on WSO, everyone talks about how much the Finance positions and rotational programs (non-IB/S&T) at BBs are all Middle/Back Office and how terrible they are. It seems to me that also provide great work-life balance and a great brand name.

So is the work in these BB positions much less interesting and look a lot worse on your resume than F100 companies? Why?

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Yes, these roles are back office at a bank. Yes, they're also back office at a tech or manufacturing company. The work's the exact same but the culture is different. Just by nature of being at a bank, the hours, stress and lifestyle are going to be worse if you're doing FP&A or corporate strategy at a bank versus at J&J.

The other issue is that you'll move up a lot quicker and ultimately be paid more for the exact same job if you do a few years in a FIG group and exit vs. if you're in a rotational finance program. Note: this is also true at other companies, but it's a lot more visible if you're at a bank.

 

Interesting, so you're saying you would pick back office at a F100 manufacturing/CPG company over regular finance/rotational programs at J.P Morgan/Bank of America? Even if the F100 position is in a tier 3 city while the BB spot is in NY/Chicago?

Are rotational programs not seen as pretty good in most companies? I thought they were normally seen as better than just getting placed in a random division.

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"recruitingstudent" Interesting, so you're saying you would pick back office at a F100 manufacturing/CPG company over regular finance/rotational programs at J.P Morgan/Bank of America? Even if the F100 position is in a tier 3 city while the BB spot is in NY/Chicago?

Are rotational programs not seen as pretty good in most companies? I thought they were normally seen as better than just getting placed in a random division.

I'm not saying that at all. I would pick a finance rotational program at either of the banks you mentioned in a heartbeat over almost any finance leadership development program in another industry.

My only point was that there are important caveats. If you can get an IBD offer at any of those places, there really isn't any upside to choosing a rotational finance program over it.

 

Ok, I agree that IB is better, I was thinking about these positions as good backups.

The main question that I had was mainly focused on whether these BB positions are still solid places to start a career and well respected by other companies and MBA adcoms.

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