Return to GS IBD or try MBB
This summer I interned with GS (London) and got my return offer. I'm now trying to decide if I should go back or try MBB.
There many things I didn't like in IBD:
- Little strategic input (firm's know what M&A they want to do)
- Not feeling like you're learning day-to-day
- Lack of respect for juniors
- Not the most sociable environment
However, I'm not sure if these will be better at MBB or if it is a case of the grass always seems greener.
Ultimately I think I want to work in PE or corp. dev. My interests lie not just corporate finance, but also more general corporate strategy (prices, products, competitors etc.)
Any insight into how the jobs compare would be very useful!
You need to figure out what you want to do. If you want to do P.E., GS is infinitely better than MBB. If you want to do corporate strategy, you should do MBB.
They are also completely different life styles. GS you will work 7 days a week (or 6 if they follow through with protected Saturdays), not travel much, and make roughly double what MBB makes. MBB your weekends are free, you'll be traveling every week, and can easily alt travel to other cities.
corp dev and P.E. will be mostly corporate finance, so I don't know why you say you want to do those two things, and then say you don't like the work involved. P.E. has a handful of operational roles, but there's not that many.
Are you just chasing prestige and don't know what you like?
Thanks for the response but I think my situation is a little more subtle than how you have laid it out.
Ultimately I don't know what I want to do, but wanted to add some colour to my background. I didn't once say I don't like corporate finance, I said my interests were broader. Also this is for London, and most projects at MBB are in London meaning less travel. Plus MBB are doing just as well for PE, at least in Europe.
I'll rephrase my question, seeing as you got the wrong impression from it. Will moving to consulting to supposedly have more strategic input and responsibility be a worthwhile move for me, or is it a case of the grass seems greener. Obviously will need someone who has experienced both to answer.
You're an excel/ppt monkey either way for the first couple of years. You'll learn more strategy concepts and frameworks in consulting than banking, but don't expect to be having much "strategic input" yourself - You don't know anything yet.
Here's my two cents. I feel fairly confident in my ability to speak to this, I was a consultant (albeit not MBB) before going to a BB IB and onto MM PE.
First off, the other guys are right. If you're thinking you want PE, you are largely better off in banking. It can certainly be achieved, but as I'm sure you've seen before, there are far more former bankers in PE than there are MBB consultants. Not to say they make better investment professionals, but there is a more defined route to getting there. Can't argue against that.
As to the things you don't like in banking, which I should highlight are from a limited summer experience, here's my take on how they compare in consulting: - Strategic Input: Just in the same way that a client will do what they will when it comes to M&A, they will do the same with strategy. Just because you work for an MBB does not mean you're crafting the strategy for the CEO. You are likely there as a tool to provide backup for a decision they already want to make. You will get frustrated with that in both banking and consulting. - Day-to-day Learning: You were learning every day in banking, you just didn't realize it because it was in such small steps. Coming from someone who has reviewed your work (or rather, SAs like you's work), trust me, you were learning. It will feel the same in consulting, you will do a lot of repetitive tasks, you will think it's all a giant waste of time. And then one day, some kid fresh out of university will come and take your old spot and you will realize just how much you learned in such a short period of time. It's literally going to be the exact same in consulting, just with a slightly different skill set. - Respect: Bottom of the totem pole is bottom of the totem poll, bruh. MBB doesn't change that. Will you get asked to go get coffee less? Yeah, I'm almost certain. I will admit that you are probably less likely to encounter outright assholes in consulting, but if you're thinking you are only doing it for two years and then bouncing, than you might just have to put up with some assholes. But at the end of the day, are you still the first one that gets handed work if something comes across late on a Friday afternoon? Absolutely. - Social: Sure, in consulting, there's going to be a lot more travel / dinners / drinks. It will be fun. Then it will get old, because it becomes work. On the other side, you'll become super close with some of the kids you work with at the bank. There's no way to not grind through a year of banking together and not come out with some degree of camaraderie.
Thanks, thats really useful. Mind if I ask what made you want to move to IB?
Sure - I had been looking at banking & consulting out of undergrad. I ultimately took the consulting job for a number of personal reasons, but I think even then I realized finance was more where I wanted to be.
After a year or so, that became very apparent to me, and I realized that I wanted to wind up in PE. I knew that in order to make that happen, I would need to jump ship, so I did. I got lucky in that I was able to lateral over, but a lot of people aren't, so I wouldn't say that mine is a traditional path.
Couldn't have said this better - good summary, great post.
Corporate strategy here -- the social side of work (happy hours, dinners, etc) gets old after a while. After spending 8-10 hours a day, 5 days a week with the same people, spending free time with them in the form of dinners and happy hours is the last thing I want to do. Socializing at work is good, but don't let work be your only source for a social circle (a mistake juniors make too often).
One component I don't believe you've divulged is whether you're at the Analyst level or MBA level.
If Analyst, and you want PE, 100% stick to GS.
If MBA level, it becomes a subtler question.
FWIW, I am in post-MBA banking and could sign my name next to your description, with the addendum that being stuck in a process makes me want to claw my eyes out.
Part of what you wrote (which was not broached in responses) is that you're interested in the actual analytics of business/marketing fundamentals - prices, products, competitors, etc. This is indeed touched upon in banking, and while you may model the economics or discuss them in pitches, bankers generally do not develop an intuition for coming up with the assumptions themselves - they mostly just sensitize others' assumptions. You are definitely more likely to delve into these topics in MBB.
That said, while others directly answered why MBB may not live up to its pitch, I'll tell you what all my same-vintage post-MBA MBB friends say about the color of the grass:
It ain't greener.
I'm basing this on a sample across all MBB in four continents.
I asked the same thing recently and all but one were dissuasive of the idea. The only one who was encouraging is a good friend, but we're very, very different and our mileage surely would vary.
They said (sometimes verbatim, sometimes my extrapolation):
My (one) friend who is very encouraging of me switching to MBB did not understand why I was dissatisfied in being a cog in a giant process. (Suggests to me that we have very different working preferences).
The last element I would consider is industry health and the likelihood of a Plan B exit (as opposes to PE). The overall industry dynamics in banking are terrible; consulting is growing. Staying in either one is probably a plan C for you, but if plan A doesn't pan out in two years, you may still need some time to figure out what Plan B really is.
Thanks for the response. Yes I should of clarified - this is at the analyst level. And for London.
If I'm being completely honest I was leaning more to MBB before this post and wanted some positive reinforcement...
Even though PE seems like the obviously path, I'm not sure this is what I ultimately want and as you say consulting opens more 'plan B' options.
Also, this may come across the wrong way, but people in consulting generally seem to be 'smarter' and the job provides more intellectual rigour/opportunity to develop yourself.
And moral was very low in IBD. Analysts could only speak about leaving and how it was like having their soul crushed... On the other hand consultants seem to be way more happy.
So I guess my questions now are - How much am I limiting myself by choosing IBD (does this close doors for start ups, VC etc.). Like you said I enjoy the analytics of a firm and not just the corporate finance side - Is my perception that people at MBB at smarter and this leads to more stimulating work necessarily true?
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