Boutique IB vs BB Commercial Banking
Hi everyone - After a long SA recruiting season, I have finally settled on one of two options:
Boutique Investment Bank:
-Unpaid
-Looks like decent deal flow, lots of well connected MDs
-Has done some ~500m sized deals, lots of other small ones - seems pretty well respected in focus industry
-Full time conversion opportunities are on an ad-hoc basis (likely not to happen)
Wells Fargo Government + Institutional Banking
-Paid, with full time opportunities
-GIB is the commercial banking side of Public Finance, but it seems like the two work together a lot. tbh I'm not too well versed on this group at all
A little background on myself:
-Non-target top 50 business school, junior
-Buyside internships
-Goal is to be in an investing role, either public or private, but that may be because that's the only thing I've been exposed to thus far
I am leaning towards the unpaid boutique internship because I figured it would lead to a wider net for FT recruiting. The only thing about that is I'm worried the lack of full-time opportunities may leave me empty handed upon graduation (hoping I'd be able to hustle through). The only reason I'm considering taking the WF role would be to try and get into a BB Public Finance (IB) group during FT recruiting - I can't really see myself doing the GIB role after graduating.
Any thoughts on which one to take?
Ultimately, make your choice based on what you're looking to do.
CB will have you looking at decent deals but all from a debt perspective which is not translatable to sell-side M&A. Though you will have the brand equity and SOME do the transfer from BB/MM Corporate Banking -->Buy-side, it's a tougher hurdle.
Boutique IB - This will allow you to actually discuss deals you've worked on. Working on pitches/valuations and even building out CIMs is an irreplaceable experience.
If you want comfort and stability (which is not a bad thing) I'd go WF. If you're 100% that IB is what you want to do, go with the boutique.
Tough one. I hate that the no-name boutique is also unpaid, whereas you could work for a great brand name in WF and get paid like a real human being.
Eh its illegal not to pay your interns in some states... be upfront and honest with them that you have two offers, you'd like to go with them but you can't work for free. ask for minimum wage.
If you go this route and say "I can't work for free," you'd better be willing to walk away from the boutique when they wish you luck and call the next guy. What's a summer internship at minimum wage? A few thousand bucks? I get that may be a lot to a college student, but seems shortsighted if you want to do IB and this is the only internship offer.
not everyone has the luxury of their parents providing rent and food for an entire summer. but if he does then it shouldn't even be a question in the first place.
Out of curiosity, what are the locations for both offers?
IB at small boutique (no modelling) vs. Commercial Banking at big Canadian bank (Originally Posted: 02/02/2017)
Hey guys, I need your input.
I need to decide between two jobs. One is at a boutique IB in Canada that raises debt from PE firms that want equity in return. The only thing is theres no modeling involved they just let the PE firms do that i would mostly be writing pitch books, doing brief financial analysis and attending meetings. The other is in commercial banking at one of the big 5 Canadian banks.
I have heard that Commercial banking isn't necessarily a stepping stone to IB so I am hesitant to take that role. The fact that there is no modeling at the IB role is worrying to me but I will basically be doing the whole other half of IB which people at bigger firms might not be able to do such as attend meetings, source deals, etc... I can also always do modeling on my own for investing purposes like build DCF's, forecast financials etc since I can already do that cold as I did at my last internship.
What would you do?
If you want to be in IB long term, take the IB job.
I know it's stupid but it will be a lot easier to sell people using the IB job title than by having to sell your experience in something else. Half the time you won't even be looked at unless you make this move because HR will see that you don't have "1-2 years of investment banking experience" and throw you out of the stack before anyone who know what the hell they're doing even sees your resume.
Commercial banking role at BB vs IB role at boutique (Originally Posted: 03/25/2018)
I'm trying to decide which offer I am going to take for an internship this summer. I could either work at a large bank (think MS, BAML, Citi) in a commercial banking role or at a boutique IB. The commercial role pays more and is not as intensive vs the IB role which pays less throughout the summer and will definitely be more intensive in terms of hours and workload. I'm not entirely what I want to do for a full-time career and am wondering which offer might be the better option for me. Any advice is appreciated!
If you want to do IB FT, having an IB internship would pay huge dividends for you.
Plus you can get an opportunity to see what IB is really like and see if it’s what you want to do long term.
You can always go from IB to Commercial, you can't work the other way around. The experience in IB is irreplaceable.
I would second this, but ask @SledGod_" what type of boutique are we talking about? They range from elite firms like LAZ/Centerview, etc. down to what I would label as scams (Blackmore, Daroth).
Thanks for the insight, I thought the same thing. Ended up choosing the IB one.
Mostly everyone on here is going to tell to tell you to take the boutique IB. I’d personally think about it very hard because I see plenty of kids on LinkedIn that get boutique IB internships and don’t end up landing a FT at anything better than another boutique. If you ask me, most boutiques aren’t worth it ( I worked at one). Some don’t even land another boutique offer
If it is a strong boutique with lots of recent closed transactions then it’s something to consider. There are some boutiques that have 20-30 bankers... if it’s one of those I’d consider. FYI I’m assuming your internship would not be at an EB.
If it’s more of a 5-8 man shop, frankly I’d take the CB offer, especially at the 3 firms you listed. People underestimate CB on here but it’s a dope lifestyle and you can still make really good money if you go the sales route down the road.
My friends boy did CB at Citi and within 2 years got into IB there. So it’s possible, esp if you network and went to a decent school.
CB, especially at the large firms you mentioned, will lend some opportunities at credit funds etc. most people do end up becoming lifers because of the awesome work/life balance it provides along with the comp. If you left lead a lot of deals you’ll get great experience with structuring deals from the credit side.
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