Leaving banking after one year
Anyone left there banking job after one year? If so, what did you? How did you make your decisions and do you think it has hindered your career at all?
I would really love to hear some opinions.
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I have some friends who left their IBD jobs after 1 year and the 2 most common reasons are an upgrade in pay (move from boutique / MM to BB) and leaving to join a completely different industry (e.g. data analytics / having their own startup). Under both scenarios, they are actually better off in terms of their careers.
I jumped firms (MM to BB) after 9 months. As long as you have a solid story and don't make moves like that too often (don't want to be labeled as someone who is easily distracted) you'll be fine!
I smell freedom
Know a guy who started off in Corporate Banking for 2 years and then made the transition to IBD at another bank. Did that for exactly 13 months and then went Corp Dev for a company in his industry coverage. Probably not the same thing since he actually spent 3 years covering the industry, but he only spent 1 year at the bank.
I know 1 person in MM IBD and another in BB 1 IBD that left in a year. Both went to Uber as an Operations & Logistics Manager. I left 1.5 years from ER to do VC.
My advice is that leaving after a year is totally fine but be VERY careful about your next move and make sure you extra hardcore DD on the role you're jumping to. If you end up hating your next gig, you're going to be in a very tough spot
Yes lots do. In my original analyst class at my first bank, around half of the group left after 1 year. Nobody really went to other banks, but a couple went to consulting, some to corp dev and corp strat roles (really the most common place), a couple wanted to start their own thing, one or two went to AM / WM, and a few went to buyside stuff.
In fact, if you don't want to stay in banking or go to certain PE firms, I think it's a very positive career move. You still have banking experience, but don't waste your time and energy slaving away at something that you don't enjoy. You can get a head start on something else and move on, and nobody is going to think the worse of you for it.
Know quite a few people (even in my old group) that left IB after about a year.
On the positive side, if you want to jump to the buyside early or switch careers, you don't waste another year of your life doing something you consider to be a stepping stone anyways and you'll get credit for "having been in banking".
On the negative side, I've seen those people burn some bridges with their old groups (i.e. I have used former senior members as references, if these people want to jump ship again somewhere else, it'll be hard to get as good as a reference). Additionally, I think you miss a real opportunity to learn what is it like to manage people. You leave right when the 1st Years come in. Your 2nd Year is all about creating polished work and learning to manage others/the process.
Overall, I found my 2nd Year to be pretty rewarding since I could crush or delegate all the process work and dig down more into how deals and the deal process works. Also, was pretty good friends with some of the 1st Years who are now moving to the buyside as well so valuable from a network perspective as well. All of these situations are dependent on a lot of factors, that is just my experience!
I broke into a MM PE out of undergrad, stayed for ~15months and jumped ship for entrepreneurship. Never looked back.
Do you think PE helps with developing experience in operating companies?
Not really, it helps for fundraising and giving your credibility, but the only way to gain operating experience is by operating. It also somewhat helps to test unit economics of business models, but thats pretty much it.
Like half of my analyst class peaced out once their first bonus hit their bank account. I think the rule of thumb (especially for banking, but also later on) is that this is fine to do 1-2 times as a junior professional, as long as it’s for a better gig.
Don’t be the guy struggling to explain why he left RBC for BMO after 12 months when recruiting for the buyside.
Hey, RBC HR takes offense to this
Lol wait till the RBC MDs see this.
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