Which offer should I take? - Which one to choose?

I need help evaluating SA offers:

-RBS Energy Banking -RBS Corporate Advisory -JPM Commercial Banking -JPM Mid Corporate Banking -Merrill Lynch Equity Research -Mercer Consulting

If location is not a factor, which one should I choose?

9 Comments
 
Best Response

First, decide which of the following careers you want to pursue for FT recruiting: Banking, Consulting, Equity Research, Commercial Banking.

Depending on the answer to this question, the best offer for you may vary. For the sake of argument, I will assume you are interested in banking (hence you posting this in the banking bullpen), so I would look closely at the following offers in no particular order: RBS Energy Banking, RBS Corp Advisory, JPM Corp Banking (MM?). Any banking experience you get over the summer will trump name brand of any other unrelated internship for FT recruiting. I don't know much about the corp banking position at JPM, but RBS should give you some solid experience in either of those positions. If RBS corp advisory means M&A/product group, then I would go with that. I would also talk to the people at each of these places so you can see where you would fit in best, should you win a FT offer and want to stay there.

If you want consulting, Mercer is very good. If you want Comm Banking or ER, it's obvious.

Good luck and congrats on the offers.

 

Thanks for the advice! Sorry about the confusion, I definitely want to do banking FT, most likely investment banking. In terms of people, I definitely like the RBS group the most. JPM is MM as far as I know, and RBS mostly M&A.

Honestly, I don't know about FT opportunities at RBS, as opposed to JPM which pushes their position as a company where you can change roles easily, and interviewers even told me they wanted me to switch over to the IBD as soon as possible. I guess I'll have to find out details soon!

 

Is that for RBS Stamford? Don't they have a rotational program? How do you know you would be doing only one particular thing? I would probably not do JPM commercial. ER could be cool, but you have fewer exit opps coming out of there as opposed to IB from what I've heard. I imagine you would only want to take Mercer if you prefer consulting to finance...

 

RBS M&A vs. JPM Corp Banking MM is a tough call, even with the possibility of moving to IBD at JPM. Sounds like you are gunning for the large deals, so would a MM position not be as appealing for you? You should have plenty of solid MM PE exit opps from JPM Mid-Corp, but I do not know much about the group in detail so I may be a bit off-base here. Again, I think this will come down to which people you like most and where you think you will get the best opportunities to kick ass.

anrolh3, if you are deciding between a boutique and JPM MM, I would probably lean towards JPM, since you will probably do similar size deals (unless KBW competes for the bigger deals... I don't know much about the firm), but JPM offers a better brand name.

In both of your cases, I think you really can't go wrong either way. You have offers for some solid IB gigs and you should be very happy with that.

 

Et dolorem eligendi eos voluptatum quia consequatur qui. Provident facere quas inventore id similique eos est.

Career Advancement Opportunities

June 2026 Investment Banking

  • Evercore 01 99.4%
  • Moelis & Company 01 98.8%
  • JPMorgan 01 98.3%
  • Guggenheim Partners 01 97.7%
  • Morgan Stanley 07 97.1%

Overall Employee Satisfaction

June 2026 Investment Banking

  • Moelis & Company No 99.4%
  • Morgan Stanley 02 98.8%
  • Evercore 01 98.2%
  • BMO Capital Markets 12 97.7%
  • Banco Santander 01 97.1%

Professional Growth Opportunities

June 2026 Investment Banking

  • Evercore 01 99.4%
  • Moelis & Company 01 98.8%
  • Morgan Stanley 05 98.3%
  • JPMorgan No 97.7%
  • BMO Capital Markets 12 97.1%

Total Avg Compensation

June 2026 Investment Banking

  • Vice President (14) $434
  • Associates (44) $258
  • 3rd+ Year Analyst (8) $210
  • 2nd Year Analyst (22) $179
  • Intern/Summer Associate (13) $156
  • 1st Year Analyst (78) $151
  • Intern/Summer Analyst (72) $101
notes
16 IB Interviews Notes

“... there’s no excuse to not take advantage of the resources out there available to you. Best value for your $ are the...”

Leaderboard

1
redever's picture
redever
99.2
2
Secyh62's picture
Secyh62
99.0
3
BankonBanking's picture
BankonBanking
99.0
4
kanon's picture
kanon
99.0
5
Betsy Massar's picture
Betsy Massar
98.9
6
DrApeman's picture
DrApeman
98.9
7
dosk17's picture
dosk17
98.9
8
CompBanker's picture
CompBanker
98.9
9
GameTheory's picture
GameTheory
98.9
10
Mimbs's picture
Mimbs
98.8
success
From 10 rejections to 1 dream investment banking internship

“... I believe it was the single biggest reason why I ended up with an offer...”