Corporate Banking Exits
Hi everyone,
I was lucky enough to land a Corporate Banking (CIB) internship this coming summer in London- major shoutout to the WSO community for all the help! For some context, I was previosly deadset on Investment Banking but after finding out about Corp. banking and the kinder hours + a comp similar to IB, I really wanted to pursue this as my career. All this to say, what are the exit opps like in CB? Would it be worth it to go back to pursuing IB and sticking it out for a few years if it means better exit opps than CB?
I would like to exit to Private equity/Private credit funds/Corp Dev. If I decided to do Corp Banking full time, would I still be able to exit to these areas? Also, what other popular exits are availble to Corporate Bankers usually? Would love to hear from some current Corp. Bankers about how they are finding their experiences too!
Cheers!
In same boat as you, headed to lower tier BB this summer for CB. I’ve talked to tons of people that were analysts/associates.
Dont go into CB if youre looking to exit to PE. You should just do IB. At least in my office, people dont leave CB. Like its not like IB where you stay 2 yrs then leave. My understanding is Private credit is definitely the most common exit if people do lateral. Some go into other divisions in the bank, like IB, DCM, lev fin etc. not the most common, and also you take a cut in seniority, ie if youre an analyst 2 in CB and you lateral to IB then youre an analyst 1 even tho youve been at the bank for a while.
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Unlike IB, A lot of ppl stay, get promoted and stay in CB for the long term. Other exit ops include going into IB, Capital Markets, Credit Funds, etc etc.
Would you say the reason why people stay long term is because the work is stimulating or for the WLB typically?
I think the pool of candidates that goes into CB holds a different mindset in general which is self-selecting - people that are in CB are in it for the WLB, as you mentioned, and the long term career prospects of becoming an RM etc. Versus IB, there's this expectation and culture of doing it for 1-2 years and then exit
I, like many of my corporate banking colleagues, were able to make the jump to restructuring across a wide array of firms: investment banking - rx group, big4 deal advisory - restructuring group, and turnaround consulting (A&M for ex).
It's a pretty common exit that I do not see a lot of people speak about.
Just thought I would throw that in there as another option!
Would it be easier to transition to restructuring from IB or pretty much the same? Also, did you and your colleagues have to restart in terms of experience for both IB restructuring and turnaround consulting?
I think you are always better set starting out in IB if your pure goal is to lateral (unless it is a small boutique IB shop vs a brand name bank for the CB role). The only person who had to restart in terms of experience was the one of us who was hired at A&M, given they do not typically hire straight out of undergrad.
Hey thank you for your input! Did your understanding of the credit side from CB prove useful/relevant in IB and the RX groups?
Yes, outside of a few hours of prepping to understand the legal aspects of restructuring which you aren't exposed to in CB (given the majority of credit in CB is investment grade). Also, your story makes a lot of sense coming from CB, as opposed to the rest of the pool of applicants that don't have any experience with credit yet. All of us that interviewed for restructuring roles got them!
As someone who was in your shoes not too long ago, and made the laterals from CB-->IB-->PE, let me tell you that if you want to do PE, your best point of entry is through IB and you should try to break in as early as possible. While I enjoyed my time in CB (~2.5 years), when I broke into IB (almost a year of interviewing and being told after final rounds that "although you were great there was someone with prior IB experience and we went with them") I basically had to restart at the A1 level. Following 2 years of IB I then recruited for PE and was fortunate to land a role, however had to spend another 6 months at the Analyst level before getting an Associate promo.
Essentially took a few steps backward with regards to title/promos relative to my peers to make the bigger leap into PE. Overall happy and definitely worth it as comp trajectory is much better and have many exit ops should I want to leave industry. However I've also seen numerous ppl make the transition a lot faster than I did (e.g. school --> 1 year of IB --> PE, or 1 year CB --> 1 year IB --> PE). My advice is start recruiting early and don't feel like you have to do a full 2 years in each role pre-PE if you know you don't plan on sticking around in CB/IB long term.
Thanks for the advice, I think in that case I should try to aim for IB. Have a couple questions for you: Did you make the move from CB->IB internally?, How hard was it to pick up the skills needed for IB after your 2.5 years in CB? (and where there any skills that were common?), What kind of hours were you working on average at your IB group and your current PE role. Cheers.
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