Minneapolis/St. Paul Investment Banking

I’m also in High school looking into IB. I don’t know much about location exactly but I’m betting Minneapolis isn’t the hot spot for it. I could be wrong. There are smaller firms and stuff but I think a move out and you would have more opportunities at bulge brackets. It also depends on where you go for undergraduate. This is my guess. Look it up for better advice

Houlihan (rx and industrials practice), Lazard MM (a couple groups i think), Piper Sandler (hq), Harris Williams (food and beverage) are the four top banks. Aside from those theres bmo and craig hallum, among others. Enough banks to have a career imo if that's what you want to do.

https://www.wallstreetoasis.com/forums/ibs-in-minneapolis

In all honesty, Mpls has very few opportunities for someone interested in a career in finance let alone banking or PE. If I were approaching college at the U of M I would focus on building a network of people on NY and SF and try to recruit for positions in those cities. Focus on giving yourself the biggest opportunities from the start, you can always move back to MN down the road!

It's nothing like New York but you can certainly make it work. I went to one of the following Blake/Breck/SPA/Edina/Orono and had friends at the others and know people whose parents work at almost every single bank listed or classmates who now work there. They all have good lives. Point being you can make it work. Also know people at the U who are interning in banking/PE at some of the smaller shops. I plan on going back to Minneapolis in 5-10 years. Only thing to note is it's a tight circle.

Wanna throw out CarVal Investors as well (Cargill's investment management group)

Also, I grew up and went to school in the area and have friends who did IB at some of the groups mentioned here. One of my buddies did his two and headed out to NY to do MM PE after so exit opps are definitely available. 

Piper Sandler (formerly Piper Jaffray) has a massive presence in Minny. Recruited for them for a while with people in MN office and NYC office. NY analysts and MN analysts equally respected

3M, Cargill, Medtronic, Ecolab, Vista Outdoors and a handful of others that weren't readily available in my head.

I’m surprised Minneapolis is still standing after this summer. Personally I wouldn’t want to be a banker in a city where I might get hunted down by pack of wild ANTIFA.

Minne will never be a NYC, San Fran, or others, so you can't even compare it to them. It is however a place that has good MM shops like Piper, HL, LMM, HW, and a few more regional boutiques. You'll get good sell side experience here. First year pay is 85k, with all in ~120k depending on how you finish in the buckets. UMN Carlson has a good pipeline to place kids in these shops, but other schools are just as able (Carleton, St Thomas, etc.). There's good exit opps in Minne to LMM PE firms (Norwest, Varde, Castle Lake, etc), along with corp dev in F300 companies (UHG, 3M, Target, Ecolab, etc.). People always forget that the cost of living is far cheaper here than in bigger towns with roughly the same pay, so you're really getting a bang for your buck. Hours are still respectable at these shops, usually at 80 or 90 with some 100+ weeks in there as well. Night life is definitely sleepier than bigger cities, but there are a good amount of bars to hang at absent covid. Very cold in the winter but everything is skyway connected and you really don't have to step outside if you don't want to. Summers are fun with all the lakes around here. Almost all these banks have a great midwestern culture. Definitely a place to have a family and still work in IB. 

You'll see a lot of people on here that would "never move to a tier 2 or 3 city like Minne," but it's not all that bad. If you have an ego problem, and have to do "big deals" go work at a BB in NYC, because Minne will never be that. Personally, I've never had the fantasy of working on these big deals at BB shops, but I won't get into that. But for someone that wants a better work / life balance, lower cost of living and decent earning potential, nice summers, and decent exit opps, Minne is a good spot. 

People who have never been in Minneapolis opining on it with such certainty lol. The city has been, is, and will be fine.

There are a handful of decent banks in Minneapolis as a couple other (actually informed) poster opined. PE is limited - NEP doesn’t recruit from the Minneapolis banks so it’s just a small handful of places that are legit and obtainable. However, there are a ton of F500 companies HQ’d in the Twin Cities area (relative to the size of the area) that many bankers wind up at (3M, UnitedHealthcare, General Mills, Ecolab, Target, Best Buy and numerous more).

Laughing very loudly at the guy who suggest Milwaukee or Cleveland offer more opportunities. Minneapolis isn’t close to NYC or even Chicago but it blows those Milwaukee and Cleveland out of the water, unless KeyBank is just doing 10x more deals than I last checked.

Coming from someone who lives in the North Loop and grew up going to a Lake Conference school, I’ll chime in. The city itself is most definitely devolving. Gone are the days where I could safely walk to meet friends or grab a drink at night, car jackings are off the charts, our mayor has the mental capacity of a 9 year old boy, and our Christmases are no longer white. Admittedly, the ~3 months of summer are nice but nothing to write home about unless you have access to a lake or cabin. People also tend to forget that living in Minneapolis is one of the more expensive cities in our country with relatively high property tax and state income tax with access to a very limited amount of activists compared to other cities in the same range.

Personally, I regret going to the UMN, UST, Carleton and staying here for the last 4 years of my career; I have countless IB/PE friends that left after undergrad to head to NY SF or CHI and are absolutely killing it doing the same shit I’m doing only getting paid more, living in more fun places, and have the opportunities to join larger firms or corporates that seem to have no ceiling.

Bottom line, Mpls isn’t the worst but it sure isn’t the best. If you’re young and ambitious I would highly recommend pursuing opportunities in other cities for IB / PE / Corp Dev. If not, you’ll still live a good life, trust me I wouldn’t trade my childhood here for the world.