Security or Dream Job?
I have an offer at a bank that's really great. It's at a really great location that I love, the pay is fine, the culture seems great, and it's focused on healthcare which is pretty interesting. The only problem is that I never planned to actually get an IB offer. I just wanted to see what it was like and practice interviews before recruiting for something like trading, AM equity research, or quant research (basically I want to work for HF or mutual fund) which happens later in the summer. I am supposed to accept the offer this week and won't have the chance to lock down anything else so I'm not sure if I should go with security - since my parents are ALWAYS telling me I'm lucky to even have an offer for next summer - or if I should turn it down and search for something else. Do I stay with the safe option and just re-recruit for full time or should I take the risk and reject the offer? How are my chances for full time recruiting coming from a healthcare MM during my junior summer and when should I start?
This sounds like a ridiculously manufactured problem. If everything is great, take the gig. If it's not, move on. But throwing away an offer in this environment is asinine.
Echoing the above except I will say I was in a very, very similar spot. Here's my two cents.
I had an offer from an OK bank, street equal pay, in NYC, no group yet, culture was fine. Wasn't all that psyched to do IB considering I had done a summer and knew what I was getting into.
As I've written on other posts, IB is easily the best place to get a start and the beauty is you really don't have to stay forever. It sets you up virtually to have a skillset to do almost any other job in finance (maybe ex. quant/trading). The pay is unparalleled out of undergrad. Network is unreal. Cons: Hours suck, work can get a bit mundane, being at a crappy cultural spot can make it political or less advantageous.
It boils down to a risk tolerance. You will likely and especially at the moment have a more difficult time trying to land said "dream job" in the current environment - unless you are willing to take a risk and be patient. Also, it seems like this is solely for a summer from what I gather. Why not just do it, see if you like it? Best part of the internship is that it ends.
To the point above, you honestly seem like your offer and potential spot seem quite good from your own point of view.
Echoing the above comment. I can speak about ER and like you mentioned, the recruiting starts later and most of the firms are downsizing their ER teams specially the ones on the sell-side (Its not a revenue-generator, after all). I was interested in ER originally but seeing all this I switched to IB. I am in the middle of many interviews at companies across the board and will have a superday this week. It's easier to switch to HF after IB so that's what I'll do. For you, I would recommend that you take the IB offer and you can always recruit for a HF after IB.
Many buy siders started in IB. I know ER seems more natural for that path, but on closer inspection it’s not so simple. Sell side equity research is getting really superficial and it seems fewer people are covering more companies. I wonder if junior folks in those roles have any time to learn analysis if they’re just pumping out cookie cutter reports. I’m not saying don’t do ER but I’d be careful about giving up a sure bet in IB if you can’t even be certain ER would be a better path.
This is very misleading. Equity research at almost all respected BB and top MM (UBS/Baird/Cowen/Jefferies, even KeyBanc to an extent) have some of the most extensive research and top rated conferences in their industry groups. MM particularly is known for putting out top quality, unbiased reasearch. ER also has excellent exit ops in HF or AM and searching around Linkedin at top HFs will show that many come from ER roles. Sure, IB and ER are both great set ups for HF but ER is by no means a “superficial role” as you make it out to be. In fact, combining the lifestyle (60-70 hrs per week instead of 100-120), comp (comparable base at lower levels) , cities you’ll probably live in (Chicago/Houston/Charlotte/Milwaukee etc) over NYC, and overall quality of work, ER can be much more rewarding with similar exit ops as IB.
Misleading post Dr. Rahma, and I hope that other Monkeys reading this will take note and figure out what ER (the career and exit ops) are like for real, not based off what this IB or bust forum makes it out to be.
I didn’t say it was happening everywhere. I didn’t say don’t do ER. I was just advising OP to not hold out for ER because he can’t be certain it will be better for him than IB.
I read the reports and frankly I could’ve been a lot harsher than I was. OP should wonder why such a defensive response to a pretty light comment. That’s revealing.
I will acknowledge some good work is being done and more so in middle market, and my cookie cutter label was a tad strong. I’m here to help OP, not please everyone. Sell side still has some broad negative trends, anyone with Google search can confirm that in seconds.
OP: you can believe the buy side research client who has no horse in this race, or you can believe the young man above who seems more interested in promoting his industry.
"most extensive research", "unbiased research", and ER do not belong in the same sentence. Not disagreeing with you on exit ops or conferences, but the value add of ER is not the reports. For example, there have been many times where analysts will downgrade names because they needed to meet some threshold of sell ratings. There are analysts who will never downgrade megacap companies for fear of losing corporate access. ER is a sales job, putting out quality research notes is not the end goal (although it helps with getting more client inbounds)
There are a lot of advantages of being in ER, many of which you laid out. But don't be blind to the negatives...
how can you possibly be trying to educate experienced professionals when you’re literally posting threads asking about summer analyst roles? genuine question honestly, why do you think you know so much more when you’re a sophomore?
sounds like a first class problem. you might be the only person on WSO who didn’t want an IB offer and actually got one
Yeah how does that accidentally happen eh?
memento mori
Do you also happen to have a brand new Mercedes you don't want because its an off white shade? Because if you do, Ill bite that bullet.
unpopular opinion probably but why not keep recruiting after accepting the offer. it seems like you want to work in a different field entirely (especially quant research), so I don't think the reneging risk is as high.
Because if the bank found out, he could easily end up with no job in the midst of a shitty economy.
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This is for a summer internship of your junior year. I had no summer internship my junior year and still managed to get a full time job in the role I wanted on a trading floor when I was young.
The economy is so majorly fucked right now, but healthcare is a sector that is going to see some interesting movements and consolidation in the next year - and also a sector you don't discretionary spend on in times of economic hardship. If I had to chose a group that's probably one I would take at the moment.
I would take it. I think it's a very fair question you are asking and I would disregard the noise in this post. Continue to network with AM and HF as well for your full time role. If the Ib offers you a full time you can reconsider then. There are a lot of hiring freezes going on at the moment and it's going to continue.
A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush - as they say. Candidly - I would take the offer. Spend two years in IB, learn the industry (which, btw, a good industry to deal with especially as it will be supercharged with all this shit) and worst case, utilize your experience to jump to a research role in that industry somewhere else.
Open to push back - but that's the optimistic case for taking the role.
Global pandemic, unemployment all time highs, banks and buyside shops cutting back on headcount...and you want to risk a good offer for a maybe because you think you might like the other more when really you're too young to know what you actually like or not.
There are times to go risk on and times where a flight to quality makes sense. If you really want to be on the buyside one day you'll need to know the differences...today is a flight to quality. Take the job you have plenty of time to discover your interest and pivot down the road.
If this is an internship, lean towards take it because you're lucky to have anything right now. IB is always respected and its an easy story to tell why you didn't want to stick with it vs quant trading later on.
If this is for full time, turn it down and roll the dice for your dream job. That's what a true trader would do.
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