Recruiting for RX FT after M&A virtual internship?
Incoming SA at a mid-tier bank doing M&A. Given the current economic climate and my personal interests, I think I want to try to lateral to RX. My bank doesn't have a RX program, so I think I would have to change banks to do this.
Are the best places to look just the big EB names (EVR/PWP/LAZ/Moelis/etc) and HL, or are there any other places that are known for RX?
How hard is it to make the jump from M&A to RX, especially if I'm trying to go upstream to a 'better' bank? I assume that RX places are swamped and might be looking to recruit for FT, but I also know that my M&A experience won't be very helpful, and my shortened virtual program probably won't even teach me much to start with. Assuming I can land a return offer, do I just start furiously calling RX teams and seeing if anyone needs a body?
Finally, people usually recommend to 'use your SA network' when recruiting for FT, but most of my SA recruiting was focused on banks that don't have RX practices, and thus I'm sort of starting from square one on that front.
Ducera
Great question. Following
Everyone will probably be doing what you're doing right now. RX is already a very sought after space and given everything that's happening that's only going to increase ten fold. In a best case scenario, they may add some more junior level spots because of how much work they are getting slammed with right now. Another post mentioned that they are cross-staffing analysts from their M&A groups to handle the deal volume. Because of this I think there is a decent chance that they may increase their analyst class, but if you're not looking to exit into PE and want the A2A that will make it way more competitive. But I think it's more likely that they just keep the class they have now and each place will only have 1-2, maybe 3 at the most positions available, and trust me everyone is going to be after them in this climate.
Also, everyone will have the same reasoning of the Coronavirus crisis. You'd need to have a legitimate reason, because your reason is just as bad as saying I want to go to this team because you have the highest deal flow. That may be the truth, but people want to hear that you're genuinely interested in their group, not just because of the pay or the deal flow or whatever. If I were you I would read as much about restructuring as possible, starting with what everyone recommends here, the HL RX case and Moyer's textbook. And once you've read through those, if you get through them and still have an interest, you need to be genuinely interested in the field because they'll know if you're bullshitting them.
Agreed. OP, you’re already at an M&A group at a mid/low tier BB. Chasing Rx lateral spots at EBs along with hundreds of other SAs that want to catch the restructuring wave will likely not be a worthwhile effort.
Very helpful, thanks + SB. I'm at UBS/DB for SA so lateraling to any EB would already be an upgrade, and something I was thinking about before this whole RX-hype. Do you think it would be easier to lateral to a BB/EB for non-RX because everyone else will be looking for RX spots? 60% of this is just motivated by trying to get to a better bank and 40% is trying to go somewhere with better deal flow. Going to look into those readings to figure out if RX is something I actually want to do!
It’ll be interesting to hear others’ thoughts here. A lot of current lateral openings currently listed at HL RX “require” a certain level of banking experience for both analyst and associate positions. If true, these requirements will make lateraling for current year SA’s quite difficult, even if given return offers at the end of their summer stints.
Wait, you mean a certain level of RX experience, specifically?
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