Boutique Unpaid IB vs. Corporate Banking

Hi, 

To start out, my ultimate goal is to work in investment banking, for a solid firm with good pay and strong deal flow.

 I'm currently set to graduate this semester from a non-target. I have 3.5 GPA, several internships in accounting, and one IB boutique internship. I'm doing the boutique IB internship right now for the fall and its unpaid, but offers pretty decent deal exposure e.g. creating CIM's, client calls, but barely any financial modeling. The MD says I can continue for as long as I want in this internship until I find a FT job. I've been looking for FT offcycle IB jobs and have been getting interviews, but no conversions yet. However, I have landed a few corporate banking offers that are quite solid. Though since my dream is to do investment banking, I am afraid that if I take the fulltime corporate banking offer, itll be backpedaling. But the pay is great and I heard many people lateral from corporate banking to IB. But will employers look down upon me if they see that I was in investment banking previously and then moved to corporate banking? Here are my options.

1. Continue Boutique IB unpaid internship and continue to network/apply until find an investment banking job(risky because its unpaid)

2. Accept one of the Corporate Banking Offers (lateral after a year or two if still want to do IB) ---- offers are from Citi, JPM, WF, C5(Scotia, BMO)

Thanks for the help guys

13 Comments
 

Corporate banking 100% of the time. That’s not backpedaling, that’s taking advantage of a an extremely solid job offer that will pay you good money and provide excellent experience. Backpedaling would be giving away your time for free at a dinky little shop and crossing your fingers the crapshoot of getting a legit gig works in your favor (unlikely, statistically)

 

Awesome, got it. And this would be applicable to all corp banking offers? Ofc granted its not a shitty no name corporate banking offer

 

Mollitia excepturi repudiandae amet quod est consequatur expedita. Eligendi magnam iste officia mollitia id quam pariatur.

Vitae qui ut nulla ad harum laudantium est. Explicabo molestiae cupiditate dolores sunt dolores aspernatur culpa nihil.

Architecto aut quis quae doloremque. Ipsa nulla veritatis officia maxime nam error atque occaecati. Illum optio possimus eius.

Nesciunt quia delectus deleniti. Qui ut et quasi et. Consectetur perspiciatis et ullam commodi magnam iste rerum. Sunt aperiam non officiis officia qui magni esse. Neque qui velit dolor ad quis laboriosam. Sapiente ea iste sapiente debitis inventore corporis in.

Array

Career Advancement Opportunities

August 2026 Investment Banking

  • Evercore 01 99.5%
  • Moelis & Company 01 98.9%
  • JPMorgan 01 98.4%
  • Morgan Stanley 08 97.8%
  • Goldman Sachs 02 97.3%

Overall Employee Satisfaction

August 2026 Investment Banking

  • Moelis & Company No 99.5%
  • Evercore No 98.9%
  • Morgan Stanley 01 98.4%
  • Banco Santander 02 97.8%
  • BMO Capital Markets 12 97.3%

Professional Growth Opportunities

August 2026 Investment Banking

  • Evercore 01 99.5%
  • Moelis & Company 01 98.9%
  • Morgan Stanley 06 98.4%
  • Goldman Sachs 01 97.8%
  • JPMorgan No 97.3%

Total Avg Compensation

August 2026 Investment Banking

  • Vice President (16) $429
  • Associates (50) $259
  • 3rd+ Year Analyst (8) $210
  • 2nd Year Analyst (25) $178
  • Intern/Summer Associate (14) $159
  • 1st Year Analyst (84) $151
  • Intern/Summer Analyst (75) $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
BankonBanking's picture
BankonBanking
99.0
3
kanon's picture
kanon
99.0
4
Secyh62's picture
Secyh62
99.0
5
Betsy Massar's picture
Betsy Massar
98.9
6
CompBanker's picture
CompBanker
98.9
7
dosk17's picture
dosk17
98.9
8
DrApeman's picture
DrApeman
98.9
9
GameTheory's picture
GameTheory
98.9
10
Linda Abraham's picture
Linda Abraham
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...”