Q&A: Current 3rd-Year BB Coverage Analyst

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Hi All - I'm currently a 3rd-year analyst at a BB based in NYC. Feel free to ask me anything. I'm pretty involved in school recruiting (widely considered a semi-target on this site), but can speak to any experiences that would be most helpful to current junior bankers / prospective ones

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Hi, thanks for doing this. A couple questions for you:

  • did you consider / are you considering PE? Why or why not?

  • What are your medium term career goals? (stay on as associate, b-school, pe/hf, etc.)

 

Hey, answers as follows: 1) I am considering PE. However, a lot of the larger funds have a similar work / life balance to banking as an analyst / associate, so am still weighing whether I want to go to a smaller shop potentially outside of NYC (southeastern funds are supposed to be better, generally speaking). 2) Long-term goal is to find a career in either investing or advising and climb the ladder, would rather not pay $100k+ for MBA to learn similar stuff from what I learned in undergrad / banking, but would consider school if I decided to make a big career change. I've also heard the additional network is quite helpful esp if you get into a top program. Hope this helps

 

People at the bank you will work at will generally not like it when / if you go to another firm, people at the top understand that you may need to move to get certain exposures to products / industries / promotions, but I wouldn't go into your FT gig with the goal of moving simply to move. Exits are similar from BB and EB and it's really about how polished you come across

 

Good question. I actually lateraled internally from more of an asset management-type role so completed this myself

Look mainly for interest, proven work ethic, ideally banking experience, unless you're willing to start over as a first-year analyst. The benchmark you're competing against is a returning summer intern, where we've been able to test drive their ability to do the job. Prestige and don't matter that much, as long as you've got generally got good grades and can do the math / stats needed for the job as a junior banker, my bank / group don't focus on that

 
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I'd say M&A is the best for pure modeling experience. However, a lot of the M&A guys that I work with at my firm have no idea what's going on with the business (partly because they're all over the place working on stuff in industrials, consumer, tech, etc and hard to focus on one space / business day in and day out)

Having an M&A team will mean that you in coverage are doing less M&A modeling, however, if you can prove you're strong technically, deal teams will sometimes leave M&A out of certain pieces of a transaction / pitch (speaking as a junior banker of course)

Coverage and M&A groups lend themselves to very strong exits for all private capital roles (buyout / growth / VC) - modeling most important in BO since the job is mainly modeling and valuing / thinking about businesses with a large track record

 
  1. Does your BB have a protected Saturday or weekend policy? Is it actually enforced if no deals are live?

  2. What are your typical hours on Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays on an average week?

Thanks for the AMA!

 

For about the first year as an MBA associate, I've found the best way to succeed with working with senior analysts is to act like you are the same rank as them (being analyst, analyst) on a deal team rather than more senior. You'll learn more and will train you better to become a stronger associate and long-term banker. Analysts generally don't like getting bossed around by someone who has never done the job that they've been doing for 80 hours a week for 2-3 years

 

Hi! Can you tell me a little about the lateral hiring processes at IBs? I was recently asked by HR about my expected compensation and previous payslips (although I'm a fresh grad), can you give me some points to keep in mind at this pre offer stage?

 

Thanks for doing this, curious about how BBs see people lateraling from MM banks after their first year. Is it a possibility? What are the stats/skills they're looking at?

" I live by the golden rule: those who have the gold usually make the rules"
 

Hi- I am a looking to make a career change. Currently I am 25 working as a financial advisor at a full service regional BD (think RJ, Baird, Stifel). I went to a non-target Midwest school in the MAC, NCAA D1 scholarship student-athlete... 3.2 GPA. Would like your opinion on what path I need to take to best have a shot a breaking into IB. B school? (if so which ones) go to schools recruiting events?

 

I'll be blunt prospects are not great for you. But if this is what you really want you can probably get there. But you have to really want it.

First Take the GMAT and ace the GMAT. If you can get within 710-720+ you might have a decent shot at some of the better programs. Apply to programs within the top 25 that have decent placement on the street. Think YSOM, Fuqua, Darden, Stern, and Ross.

I definitively know people who have gotten into the HBS & GSB with less than a 3.2 GPA, but they were super stars in other areas and had 760+ GMAT scores (99 percentile).

When you are in B-school talk to your career offices/advisory and see if they can get you some introductions with some veteran bankers. Continue to build and leverage your network into a FT position.

 

How did you manage the internal lateral into IB? I am currently in S&T (1.5 yrs in) and want to switch over to IB within the same bank...just unsure how to approach this (did you start by bringing it up with your manager at the time, etc.)

 

I believe your options are the following:

1) network internally and see if any groups of interest have openings (may need to contact HR here given the S&T and IB wall) 2) get an offer elsewhere and leverage it if you'd like to stay at the same firm

you may need to start over as a junior analyst just given the skillsets are different, would just be aware of that

 

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