I’m currently a 3rd year analyst in credit risk covering FIG at a large investment bank (worked in investment management for 2 year and moved to credit risk last year). My group is involoved in credit analysis of FIG clients, assessing creditworthiness, structuring lending transactions and approving trading lines for derivative activity. I have an interview for an associate position in FIG corporate banking at another investment bank and basically the role would be to market the bank’s diff products including capital markets products, FX, treasury management, private placements, hedges and derivatives etc. There is some modeling required to understand the capital structure of the company when analyzing loan transactions. My long term goal is to be in a credit investment or an investment banking role but I’ve found it very difficult to move from credit to IBK, even internally. My questions are: 1) How hard is it to move to IBK from a corporate banking role? IBK and corp banking mostly work with the same clients and corp banking communicates with syndication and DCM on a regular basis. 2) Would this be a good move or should I stay in credit risk, get promoted to associate hopefully next year and try to find something else at that point with more experience under my belt? 3) What is the salary/bonus at the associate level in corp banking? Thanks.
Don’t go into Corporate Banking. It is nothing like Investment Banking – all aspects (money, culture, substance of the work) are worse.
I know, i’m not comparing IB to CB. I’m just wondering if it’s easier to move to IB after a couple of years in CB compared to credit. My job right now isn’t that great and I don’t think i’m learning much so I’m trying to move out.
I am a corporate banker, made the move from credit analysis. Don’t listen to MB389. You can make a heck of a career out of it. You might not make as much, but you won’t be working 85 hour weeks either. The “substance” of the work and culture comments is complete BS.
FloridaGator, what are you day-to-day responsibilities as a corporate banker? Do you do any modeling and analyze deals or is it mostly a sales/relationship management role? What would the salary/bonus be at the associate level? FYI, the position is in NYC.
anyone else has any input?
When you say “corporate banker” I believe you are referring to a Relationship Banker role as it is more commonly referred (at least that’s how I know it)! As someone that has worked in Credit Risk and probably has 10 years of experience on you my advice would be to exit credit/counterparty credit (sounds like you are doing counterparty credit which is nothing more than admin BS and writing book reports that no one reads) as soon as an oppty arises. Being a relationship banker is often synonymous with many of the I-Banking products/services/roles you will ultimately become familiar with. It is also a great segway to doing IB full-time. What might surprise you is that many IB guys hope to become Relationship guys at some point. I know at Barclay’s for instance, that was indeed the case.
Yeah i’m in counterparty credit which is getting pretty boring. My only concern with corp banking is that it’s mostly marketing your products to your clients and not a lot of analysis/modeling which could make it hard to get into IB. Do you agree? If I were to work their as an associate for 2 years, would it be possible to move to an IB role at the associate level?