If you are interested in pursuing a career in a BB group/middle market (healthcare, oil and gas, technology, etc.), is it wise to devote a ton of time to understanding and being knowledgeable about the financial side of those industries, at the possible expense of "pigeonholing" yourself?
Trending Content
Career Resources
As an analyst you should have the opportunity to move around your bank to avoid that "pigeonhole" feeling or sentiment. If, for example, you start off in an industry group, such as Energy and Power, but want to move in Consumer Retail, or even out of industry and into something like Financial Sponsors or even a product group such as Lev Fin, you should have that opportunity at some point over your 3 years if you are a strong analyst. Even if you never find that opportunity (if for example you just happen to miss out on another group hiring and never catch an opening) and are working in Consumer and Retail, there are still a large number of opportunities available in the field - so while you may not have energy and power experience, you will be a prime candidate for consumer and retail positions in BBs and boutiques. Additionally, depending on the transactions that you have worked on, you may have a strong M&A or Lev Fin side as well strictly through active involvement in your M&A and Lev Fin deals. The thing to remember is that while there is always a change of being pigeonholing, because even product groups are usually segmented - for example one of my friends in Lev Fin works on energy and power and industrial growth, two others focus on consumer and retail, another on media and telecom, etc.
The best advise would be to find something (a field or a product - i.e. consumer and retail, or M&A) that really interests you, snag some deal exposure, and really make the most of the opportunity. If after a year or so you want to move to another group, just be upfront about it, network with other groups and you'll usually be able to make a transition. This is a business of experience, however, so if you work in consumer and retail, M&A and financial institutions, but never close a deal because you moved around so much, then you really haven't made the most of your time as an analyst and will be in a much worse position than the person who only worked in financial institutions for 2 years, but has, maybe 5 closed deals under his/her belt and can talk intimately about his/her experiences with products, clients and transactions.
IBanker www.BankonBanking.com Articles, News, Advice and More Break Into Investment Banking
I am not sure who you are or what your website is all about, but this advice is just plain wrong. First, consumer retail is not a group, (the correct names are consumer discretionary and consumer staples), second, it is NOT a product group, it is an industry group.
Also, most BB's have 2 year programs with an optional third (based on performance), and it is VERY RARE to switch groups as an analyst.
My advice is, if you really enjoy a certain industry, join an industry group. If not, then decide which product group most interests you... (M&A is everyone's first choice) but you can join restructuring, levfin, fig (yes fig is a product group).
I think it is important to be a generalist early on and get exposure to as many different types of industries/companies for the same reason it makes sense to sleep with many women...you determine what interests you and you dont have to eat corn flakes every morning for breakfast. Over time I think it is important to specialize to some degree as you develop a more valuable skill set but again there are pos/neg to being a mile wide inch deep vs. the alternative
I appreciate the comments, is it advisory to do this for internships, i.e. knowing the technology sector down pat, during college and only doing internships with technology groups, etc, instead of working in different industry groups?
MoneyKingdom,
I'm not sure where you worked, but your info is actually a little off. BankonBanking is right about the consumer retail name, as most banks (including mine) actually call that coverage group consumer retail. Discretionary and Staples are just types of consumer companies. And I do not think he said it was a product group. He gave examples of industry groups to lateral to, and then mentioned switching to the product side. Also, you are incorrect when you say FIG is a product group. FIG (Financial Institutions) is an industry coverage group, and I cannot think of one bank that classifies it as a product (could be wrong).
I was a SA in IBD in the consumer retail group at a BB. It definitely is an industry group.
Thank you dabears for saving me the trouble of explaining myself, and correcting the person who felt the need to call me wrong. Also, for the record, I know several analysts who have switched groups while working over their two years, and while I realize the analyst program is 2 years, many, if not most, especially depending on the year, are offered a 3rd year (unless they're pretty bad). And when offered that 3rd year, I know of a lot of analysts who made the switch between groups - again, it's by no means a majority of the class (as most of the class prefers to stay in their particular group), and it is based on necessity of other groups, but it is an option. Personally, I think you are better off selling yourself on the sell day and getting into your top group choice and then killing it for 2 years, take the 3rd, do well, and then run with hopefully a few bucks in the bank, some solid experience, and a nice post-banking position (or B school, whatever it is that you prefer).
IBanker www.BankonBanking.com Articles, News, Advice and More Break Into Investment Banking
MoneyKingdom is hilarious, I didn't really find anything from what BankonBanking said that was too off to be 'plain wrong.'
My bank uses consumer retail name as well and FIG does fall into the industry group category.
For your website, would you recommend analysts spend their hours typing long, drawn-out responses on internet forums, instead of doing actual work?
Absolutely I do - I think the key to everyone's success is to spend hours on forums and not working. Or, maybe...instead of reading news and playing games or the like at different down points in the day, I sign in to promote a new venture that I am working on to help others break into the business. I didn't realize that as an analyst I was supposed to be busy 20 hrs per day without a single break - unfortunately, my group isn't that busy right now, which affords me the luxury (temporarily at least) to help out on here (yes help myself as well as others) while holding down my analyst work. Thank you very much for your concern though, as I can see you truly care about the readers.
Furthermore, instead of typing out long responses that try to fully answer the question rather than just result in more questions and confusion, I should just type one-to-two word answers such as "yes" or "work hard" when asked how to break into the business. If you don't like the length of my answers, then that's fine, you don't have to read them, but I hope that at least a few people (the questioner at least) find the answers helpful to them. For the record, I apologize to everyone reading this and wasting their time with this back and forth nonsense vs actually reading informative content.
IBanker www.BankonBanking.com Articles, News, Advice and More Break Into Investment Banking
Hi Guys
I had a related question. I recently finished my year long internship at a boutique shop, where all my work was in the healthcare and alternative energy/power sectors. While emailing MD's at IBanks who cover these industries (in addition to other industries), will it be a good idea to play up my work in these industries. Additionally does it make sense to devote some time during summer reading up even more on these sectors and kind of gaining an 'industry specialty.' I am guessing that the healthcare sector in particular will probably experience strong growth going into the next decade?
Also, in my networking efforts, I am not getting as many replies to my emails as I have in the past, is it that this time of the year many MD's take a little time off as kids get of school?
I will be a senior this coming fall and will start applying for FT analyst positions.
I would be careful when "playing up" your role, only because you don't want to be caught lying. The key here is to really sell the experience without inserting a bunch of false stats, tasks and information - otherwise, come reference time, you could be in trouble.
Regarding extra work, I don't think it's necessary, but if the fields are interesting to you, it wouldn't be a bad idea. It will help to show that when you are engaged in a field or project, you like to be well-versed and actively involved in it. However, considering it was an internship position, you wouldn't be expected to learn everything about the field - your time may be better spent learning everything you can about the job, the position and finance/accounting, instead of one particular industry (Energy and Power or Project Finance for example - considering you were working with alternative energy/power projects). Remember, there is a good chance that you will end up in a different group, especially if you are coming into a FT analyst class, and not a direct hire into a group - it should be enough to show that you were actively engaged in the projects/deals that were going on, and made a conscious effort to learn all you could about them while there.
Lastly, if you are only emailing MDs, then you will probably not get that many responses if you are simply cold-emailing them. In addition to emailing MDs, you should try to find alumni contacts in the analyst/associate roles as well - they will usually be more responsive than senior employees. Oh, and yes, now is the big vacation time - college graduations and such take up June, then July is prime vacation time sailing into mid August or so before things will start to really heat up again (in general). Best of luck.
IBanker www.BankonBanking.com Articles, News, Advice and More Break Into Investment Banking
Thanks for the advice Bankonbanking. I guess subconsiously why I wanted to play up my 'expertise' in especially the Healthcare sector is because I couldn't find a SA position this summer, and am interning in the business development division of a biopharmaceutical company instead. I am going to research boutiques who focus mostly on healthcare, and for those interviews (provided i get them) I can spin around my summer internship here and make it seem relevant to IB.
Would you guys recommend that I put my pharma internship when applying to BB's/banks that focus on many different industries? Which one is worse- going from interning at an investment bank to a pharmaceutical company, or not having done ANYTHIGN for this summer? Thanks for the help guys.
Goldman http://www2.goldmansachs.com/careers/our-firm/divisions/ibd/how-were-or… says consumer retail as well (well actually consumer AND retail).
Moneykingdom, I don't know why you go attacking people who are actually spending their time to give advice. Sure flame the idiots who ask dumb questions etc but not people giving legit advice. For that reason I'm actually bothering to reply.
You are totally wrong.
a) I know of multiple banks where FIG is more than a regular industry group (say vs something like Industrials) and has a different reporting structure to that of regular industry groups.
b) Everywhere apart from the US there is no 2yr analyst stint, analysts all stay on as long as they want provided they aren't fired at each annual review. I know of a few banks (including mine) which at least in good times did let you move between industries/product groups if you don't like your initial choice or want to try something new. In my bank at analyst and associate level a good few people have moved and I have friends who have done so at analyst level in other banks.
c) As for the consumer retail comment, I think you should have enough common sense to know different banks call different industry groups by different names, particularly as some have merged various groups for cost reasons.
is a sr user of this board? Maybe he's not even in banking.
I worked at a BB a few years back. Yes consumer retail exists. Usually BB's group them as consumer retail and healthcare.
, and have many friends that work in other banks with that group name
Consumer retail is a coverage group, and is typically known by that name. Staples and discretionary are types of companies...
Why do people sound so confident when they are wrong, it throws off people who don't know better.
I would absolutely recommend that you put your healthcare internship on your resume. It is definitely better to show a strong internship (with solid experience) on your resume than nothing at all. Then, if asked why healthcare, spin it to your favor - in other words, if it's a healthcare IB it's a no-brainer, but if it's not, then just say you had an interest in the field, and enjoyed the challenging projects, but the field itself is not for you, and you are hoping to be challenged in an equally analytical/demanding/intellectual way in my next position (or something like that).
Yes, consumer and retail is a corp fin group - and to rmivalue, I believe my bank has recently joined healthcare with consumer and retail as well.
IBanker www.BankonBanking.com Articles, News, Advice and More Break Into Investment Banking
Minus veritatis autem necessitatibus et officiis numquam iste. Odio quis saepe vitae sint. Quidem doloremque voluptas fugiat fuga.
Exercitationem delectus in et et non et reprehenderit. Provident doloremque vel mollitia quas facere dolor aut corporis. Perferendis officia et non porro harum. Sapiente doloribus sit sit illum molestias ipsum.
Sed quam voluptatibus eaque. Consequatur non deserunt veniam. Cumque a nihil ut vitae. Quia libero voluptas excepturi odio beatae. Officiis eos libero illum voluptatem aut iure. Voluptatem debitis culpa est eum tempora illum consequatur error.
See All Comments - 100% Free
WSO depends on everyone being able to pitch in when they know something. Unlock with your email and get bonus: 6 financial modeling lessons free ($199 value)
or Unlock with your social account...