ER at JPM, BoA/Merrill, or MS

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kcin

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Just looking for some commentary regarding the working environment/corporate culture within the ER groups of JPM, BoA/Merrill, or MS.
If anyone has experience working at or with these shops I’d appreciate some feedback (positive or negative).
Coming from a Canadian Bank I’d expect there to be some differences with how they operate and their relative access to data services and resources.
Thanks in advance.
 
You’re best off going to wherever you think will be the best fit, I.e. 90 percent of your job experience will depend on your boss and team and how you relate to them. All of them are good names and research in general can be pretty fickle so it’s hard to know over the span of a couple years who will be downsizing and who will be upsizing. I will say though that MS probably will have more of a personal feel culture-wise on a relative basis compared to BoA Merrill (because the merged company is so huge), and perhaps in line with or slightly more personal than JPM. BoA culture would feel more like Citigroup if I had to guess.
I interviewed with all of those banks several years ago and got offers from all except for JPM (didn’t finish the recruiting process with them). And as a GS/MS guy myself, I can say that MS has more brand cachet in my opinion…but really, from the standpoint of job experience and future opportunities, it’s all going to depend on how much visibility and useful work your boss lets you do. So go with the firm whose people you like most assuming that you get offers from all. They are all prominent brands with good platforms and large institutional client bases so if you were to pick BoA, it’s not like anyone would ask you why you weren’t at JPM instead.
Hope that helps
 
I never worked at any of these banks but as a consumer of sell-side research, I would say that the brand of the bank is less important than the brand of the senior analyst you’ll be working for…of course, that’s often out of your control. All three of those names are comparably respected for research (which is different from the overall reputation of the bank and/or the M&A/deal league tables driven by investment banking revenue). For instance, I would rather work for JPM from an overall company reputation perspective, MS for investment banking reputation perspective, and pretty much indifferent from quality of research perspective.)
 
I would just try to work for the best analyst you can. Those are all good shops.
 
Thanks for the insights guys. It really does just depend on the analyst you work for and the opportunities that arise from working for a top rated person (from my past experience anyway).
 
as numi said, its not about the company its about the analyst. each analyst is essentially a franchise business and there are better and worse franchises within every ER department.
 
Make sure you gel with the analyst…. That is important, you will be dealing with him constantly so a good relationship is pertinent.
Like it has been said, the shop reputation is important but analyst reputation is more important. An II ranked all American at a research boutique is better than a wannabe rock star at a bulge bracket IMO….
 
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