Pivot to IB

Hi everyone,

after graduating two years ago, I joined an early-stage VC fund in Europe where I've been doing pretty much everything the partners do except fundraising. For various reasons, I would be interested in moving into IB. I have spoken to a few friends in IB, who said it'd be difficult without previous M&A experience.

Any opinions on whether it is possible to move directly into IB and what the best approach for it is? If a direct pivot is difficult/impossible, I'm currently considering doing a Master's in Finance or joining big 4 in transactions for a year or two. What do you think is the best option for these two? How difficult is it to go from big 4 to IB?


Thanks in advance!

 
Most Helpful

MBA is the way. M7 or top 15 will feed you right into BB/EB ASO. Unfortunately it's hard to go direct, as your friends said your experience just doesn't overlap a lot with the experience required for IB.

MFin is basically a "fifth year" of college for people who are trying to get grad analyst jobs - you would not qualify. Big4 is okay but not a preferred route... a bunch of people got into IB during crazy covid hiring but most places will still find someone with true IB experience first these days. I'd go to corporate banking long before I did Big4, much easier lateral.

 

Thanks for the answer! Do you know if this is the same for Europe/UK? From what I've read, much more difficult here to break into IB with an MBA without prior IB experience.

 

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