Wall Street vs London vs Frankfurt

Since you are considering Frankfurt, I guess you are from Germany or at least from a German speaking country. That being said, it's nearly impossible or at least really hard to get an analyst spot on Wall Street due to the whole Visa crap.

Hence, it's London vs. Frankfurt. Both shouldn't be a big deal to break in if your profile is sufficient, although London might be a little bit harder since they tend to recruit from top universities and Frankfurt is more open to non-targets as well.

You will earn more in Frankfurt and the cost of living in Frankfurt is much cheaper than in London. London 1y. earn GBP45 base at top banks whereas their peers in Frankfurt earn €65 base with slightly higher bonuses. But this is nearly everything positive one can say about Frankfurt.

There are quite a few nice bars and clubs but it is nowhere comparable to London. Furthermore, the city as a whole kind of sucks. You have a few nice spots, but all in all Frankfurt is pretty dull. If you want to live in a nice German city you should consider Munich, Hamburg or Berlin, although they are not the places to start a finance career (admittedly, Munich has plenty of PE houses but it's hard to break in straight from college). Frankfurt is more or less a city where people come to work but don't like to live. Many people leave the city on the weekend, although this won't be possible for you when working as a banking analyst. Girls are pretty good there but keep in mind that it is a small town compared to London or NYC.

Furthermore, hours in Frankfurt are pretty brutal, especially at places like LAZ, GS, MS or RS. A few of my colleagues or acquaintances who worked in Frankfurt complained about the hours there. At London offices, there are times when you come out before midnight and have free weekends. You also catch some drinks on a Thursday or Friday night with you co-workers, that's barely happening in Frankfurt. Additionally, you will probably see bigger and more interesting deals at the London offices, maybe apart from a few banks including Deutsche and Rothschild.

You might earn less in London at the end of the day, but your life will be much better in my opinion. The city is pretty sick, you have a diverse bunch of people, a little bit of free time outside of work and the weather isn't nearly as bad as people claim it to be. Moreover, PE or HF recruiting will be so much easier in London. The HF scene in Frankfurt is non-existent and PE houses tend to recruit their fair share of Germans with banking experience in London. It's much easier to get in touch with the right people when you are already in London, whereas being in Frankfurt will put you at a huge disadvantage. Another thing you might consider: London doesn't only cover the UK or Europe, many London offices cover the whole EMEA space so you might get to some cool places like Dubai, Abu Dhabi or Istanbul. However, this hardly happens at a BB but is more common at top boutiques that are trying to raise you as a career banker. I have been travelling to some pretty sick places recently, if this is of any importance to you.

Long story short, go to London or New York to start your career.