US vs Canada IB
I'm a semi/non-target student who just landed a SA 2021 position in Canada at a pretty well-known bank. I'm super grateful and am really excited to start next year but can't help but continue to look into the future.
A few kids from my school have extended their degree to take an extra summer and go to the states to get into a BB and I wanted to know what the benefit of this would be/what the difference of being in the US vs Canada would be? I'm not even sure if I want to do this and thought about it a bit so wondering if anyone can give me some insights
I think it's a personal decision that doesn't necessarily have a right answer. Here are a couple of differences:
1. More industries (Canada focuses on financials, O&G, and energy - if these aren't interesting to you, there are more options in the US)
2. Greater deal flow (NY tends to get greater deal flow but also depends on your team. Greater deal flow could mean getting to see more interesting or complicated deals)
3. Exits (NY has a bigger finance scene. Canada doesn't really have HFs and PE is only mid market and at pensions)
4. Different culture - again depends, but if you go to a US BB, there's typically more juniors (lots of people in IB in 1 building in the US vs maybe 2 floors in Canada)
Mostly agree with this, although point 3 is a little bit off, Toronto has Onex and Altas which I would argue are just as prestigious as most top UMM funds in the US, and the pensions funds (specifically CPP and OTPP) both operate on a larger scale with fairly sizable deals both on the direct PE and secondaries teams.
I would caution that you should have a clear plan/line of sight to US banking roles if you're planning to delay a year. With many banks cutting back on TNs the field is more competitive than ever. I think it's especially tough if you're not at Ivey/Queens because for the most part alumni at firms that do sponsor are going to prioritize candidates from their own school when there are so few spots available for Canadians. So don't assume that you can easily make the jump, even if you're at an RBC M&A or comparably strong group, US bankers will discount that experience relative to US based banking roles, and non-alumni Canadians won't necessarily go to bat for you in the way you might expect.
Onex and Atlas take a handful of associates every year and they tend to prefer candidates with US experience or at least that were at BBs. They have very few employees that worked at Canadian banks and RBC is significantly overrepresented. Did a quick browse on both website and cannot find a single associate in Toronto who worked at a Canadian bank that is not RBC and most come from GS / MS (mix of Toronto and NYC). Being pretty well acquainted with both markets, there is a material difference in the quantity, quality and diversity of buy-side roles in the US vs Canada. Not sure I would stay an extra year in school for a potential opportunity, but if you have the choice of NYC vs. Toronto, i would strong advice on NYC.
Deffinilty agree that I'm not going to look at differing a year unless I have some pretty good prospects down there - there are a few students (maybe 1-2) that we send down to the US every year so the possibility is there but the reduction on TNs (I'm assuming these are Visas) will make it a lot harder.
Also - the bank I'm at is not RBC lol - its known in the Canadain space, not much (at all) of a US footprint.
Was wondering if it may be worth doing fulltime recruiting into BB or taking an extra summer and doing BB in Canada (I know MS has a Toronto office, idk who else...) - let me know your thoughts! (not really sure what the marginal benefit here would be other then "I work at a cooler bank and spent an extra 12 months in university....)
Hi, can you please share the IBD compensation range in Canada?
The "more industries" piece interests me - tech has always seemed like an interesting space but I know that is ultra-competitive. I've also heard that comp is better in the US? I'm not too sure on that one but thanks for everything else to think about!
Can you please share the IBD compensation range in Canada?
I'm originally from Canada myself, did UG there and have been working in the US for a few years now so I'd like to think I have decent insights into both countries.
One of the biggest differences (other than some of the points already mentioned around industry focus, more limited buyside opps, etc. which are accurate) is the optionality - it's significantly easier to move to Canada coming from the US than vice-versa, and from what I hear the pension funds in particular like to hire talent with US experience. Optionality alone significantly favors US vs Canada (assuming you can work through the visa hurdles, which have only become more difficult in the last few years)
Hey I've got a question, I go to a non-target in Canada and am having a tough time recruiting here, however I am a U.S dual citizen so I have expanded my efforts to the US where there are just more opportunities. What do you think is the best way for me to approach recruiting? I don't have much finance experience so do you think sticking with boutiques would be best?
Coming from a non-target in Canada is difficult, outside of Ivey / Queens and McGill, UBC, Waterloo (latter three to a significantly lesser extent) I don't come across many folks at EBs / BBs in the US. I think in your position where conversion is probably weaker (as a non-target), your best offset is widening top-of-funnel. Go for as many boutiques as you can in the US, it can't hurt to apply to more places as long as you're doing it thoughtfully and don't have a poor (i.e., stick with M&I standard) resume and networking approach
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