Citi or Centerview for buyside options?

I was a sophomore intern at Citi and got a return offer for my junior summer to do investment banking in NYC office. I recently got an interview at Centerview Partners (NYC) though so I'm not sure if I should just do it and see if I get the offer. My goal is to just go to the buyside and I know centerview has a 3 year analyst program. If anybody could provide any sort of insight/guidance, I'd really appreciate that.

 
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Citi for Buy Side due to Name Brand 

CVP for Pay. They also place good to the Buy Side, so you can't lose

I would personally choose CVP again, because of pay. Its up to you

If you take Citi over centerview for buyside opps, you are just stupid
 

3 year program could be an advantage... You could do on-cycle 1 year late and actually get some deal experience. That said it is an extra year of banking. If you think you’ll hate banking and want to get out asap go for citi. I would think of it mostly in terms of the time. Pay also. But buyside exit ops both will be very good imo. Think you will be fine either way if you are considering this early post soph IB internship.

 

OP here, do you think there would be a difference in work life balance between citi and cvp? (i.e., spending more time in office as a cvp analyst vs citi analyst)

 

If you think there’s a possibility you would be interested in doing something non PE/HF related after IB or later in your career I’d go with Citi for the better brand name outside of finance but that’s just me

 

I don't think "better brand name outside of finance" is the same as prestige. Within finance, CVP has a little bit of an edge depending on who you ask, but beyond finance, Citi just gets an "oh okay" and Centerview gets a "no freaking clue" and I honestly don't see much difference between the two. To my non-finance friends, Citi, Wells Fargo and Chase are about the same.

 

If this was another EB versus CVP, then I'm all ears, but the comp difference here makes it a no brainer to go for CVP. In b4 some BB analyst tries to convince you that the extra annual 70k+ you would earn is marginal in the long-run of "lifetime earnings" or whatever lmao

 

CVP has a reputation for placing poorly because of self selection; many of the people who choose to go to CVP are often enthusiastic about banking and aware they are about to enter a program known for encouraging A2A promotes and grooming potential partners, whereas a large chunk of banking analysts at BBs (I'd say ~2/3) intend to leave for PE or a HF, with the other 1/3 often deciding a little later but with a majority leaving. If you're at CVP I would encourage you to consider staying as an A2A (not bottom of the totem pole, pay as high as Apollo's, good culture from what I've heard), but you will not be that limited in exits -- just that the history isn't as long or large in terms of leaving

 

The reputation is actually partially with HHs, since there is an assumption that the best analysts try and stay at CVP (not always true) as A2As. CVP is also known to not be supportive of recruiting even during second year on-cycle, and will really only help you at the beginning of your third year (basically once you know with reasonable certainty who gets A2A) and so the assumption is often that the weakest analysts leave. Not a fair perception but that sometimes holds true. CVP analysts exit really well but you do see some at random shops a lot of the time

 

The most negative thing I've heard about about CVP is that there's the clawback you get. But the exits are better on average than Citi teams (except real estate maybe), teams are leaner, and you don't have to deal with angry Revlon lenders.

 

No harm in doing the interview. If you get the cvp offer then I guess you risk a re-neg situation with citi but yea cvp is def the better option overall. you'll learn a lot and I heard culture and pay are amazing so can't go wrong w that

 

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