Boutique Unpaid IB vs. Corporate Banking

Hi,

To start out, my ultimate goal is to work in investment banking, for a solid firm with good pay and strong deal flow.

I'm currently set to graduate this semester from a non-target. I have 3.5 GPA, several internships in accounting, and oneIBboutique internship. I'm doing the boutiqueIBinternship right now for the fall and its unpaid, but offers pretty decent deal exposure e.g. creating CIM's, client calls, butbarely any financial modeling. The MD says I can continue for as long as I want in this internship until I find aFTjob. I've been looking forFToffcycleIBjobs and havebeen getting interviews, but no conversions yet. However, I have landed a few corporate banking offers that are quite solid. Though since my dream is to do investment banking, I am afraid that if I take the fulltime corporate banking offer, itll be backpedaling. But the pay is great and I heard many people lateral from corporate banking toIB. But will employers look down upon me if they see that I was in investment banking previously and then moved to corporate banking? Here are my options.

  1. Continue BoutiqueIBunpaid internship and continue to network/apply until find an investment banking job(risky because its unpaid)
  1. Accept one of the Corporate Banking Offers (lateral after a year or two if still want to do IB) ---- offers arefrom Citi,JPM,WF, C5(Scotia,BMO)

Thanks for the help guys

Comments (13)

  • Analyst 2inAM - FI
Nov 17, 2021 - 10:24am

Corporate banking 100% of the time. That's not backpedaling, that's taking advantage of a an extremely solid job offer that will pay you good money and provide excellent experience. Backpedaling would be giving away your time for free at a dinky little shop and crossing your fingers the crapshoot of getting a legit gig works in your favor (unlikely, statistically)

Nov 17, 2021 - 10:49am
400LPPEAK, what's your opinion? Comment below:

Got it, would this be the same for C5 Corporate Banking? e.g. Scotia,BMO,CIBC

Nov 17, 2021 - 11:35am
i.can.make.it, what's your opinion? Comment below:

Keep in mind any real bank that is worth working for would not offer an unpaid internship.

Take the offer even if its from a C5. Corporate Banking toIBis not that hard and a lot of people make the jump.

If you go from a no name school to a no name bank you are basically nuking your career.

Nov 17, 2021 - 9:34pm
IncomingIBDreject, what's your opinion? Comment below:

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