Is It Time to Lateral?
Got onto a desk in early July for a small M&A firm in the Washington DC area. Kind of a long story on how I got here, I actually studied physics (Non-target school) and it was too late by the time I knew I wanted to do finance to switch majors. The team is only 10 bankers, and since we are so small I have learned so much in such a short amount of time. We do TMT, on both the sell side and buy side. Have really killed it the first couple of months here, my MDs are putting me on a majority of deals, or at least in the loop of all incoming/diligence work compared to the other analysts. And because I feel like they took a risk on me have really gone above and beyond to take on extra work, come in on weekends to do modeling classes, and read the main finance textbooks typically prescribed in college.
However, I want to be in NYC, working for either an EB or BB. I got a good network still warm from last year's round of recruiting, but I guess looking for advice overall on if I should even try to lateral this early with the gloomy economy and GS layoffs, or do my 2 years at this bank then go somewhere else. Pros/Cons I got in my head are:
Pros: (Lateral ASAP)
1) I want to be in NYC
2) Work for a more well-known bank
3) Thinking about MBA and a better more reputable bank will hopefully help my resume
4) I want the full IB analyst experience
Cons: (Wait to Lateral)
1) I like the guys here feel bad leaving this early
2) Living rent-free right now due to my parents owning real estate in the area
3) I want to end up in this area to raise kids (15+ years from now)
What do you monkeys think?
Unless you don't believe you're getting good experience or the money is considerably less than the industry average is, I'd probably wait at least a year to lateral. It's possible you could get hired from an NYC bank now, although with only a few months of experience you're not going to have the amount of deal experience that lateral recruiting typically requires. I'd continue to expand your network and use this time to hone in on the skills and knowledge you'll need to be a great lateral candidate.
Gotcha that makes sense! For the area honestly feel like its more on par with NYC comp, plus not having a rent expense I feel like the Richest Man in Babylon, and already have a ton of experience because we don't have the resources being so small. So overall really grateful. I guess I'm just thinking if its even worth starting the lateral process with on cycle recruiting happening now, could I slip in with the college seniors applying now and start next summer? Def also having FOMO with most my other buddies being on the street, living in east village, just overall NYC life.
You can try now for on cycle recruiting, that's a great idea. I was thinking in terms of off cycle recruiting where you would effectively be replacing someone. For those roles they're looking for someone that can come in and hit the ground running. Not to say that you couldn't do that now, although the more experience you have the less of a risk the said bank would be taking on you.
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