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I do not plan on getting an MBA, but may want to shift my career into a mid-level associate position in i-banking after a few years...is this something people do? Currently a first year associate at a V20 firm in NYC in corporate....assuming M&A is the best practice area for i-banking, but what about cap markets, project finance, etc.?

Have you considered corporate restructuring? I don't know much, but, see e.g.: http://www.williamblair.com/Contact/Emp ... hards.aspx

I recently attended a conference where I asked this question of 5 or 6 investment bankers. (NB, this is the extent of my knowledge, so anyone feel free to correct.) Here's what I learned:
1) Yes, people do it, and they seemed to act like it was obvious why I would want to do that and certainly feasible. Each said something like, "I know Person X, and he's a lawyer who made the jump to IB, and he is really good." Anecdotal, yes, but it was a recurring observation.
2) Hearing them describe their work, it basically sounded like exactly the same thing as M&A, just done from a financial perspective.
Question: Do you know other folks from your firm who have made that move? Personally curious...

It happens, but it's not common at all. The conventional wisdom is to not plan on using a legal career to jump into banking.

You can certainly try, as there's nothing to lose once you've already gone through law school / started at the firm, but I wouldn't expect much interest.

If you want to be a lawyer, go to law school
if you want to be a banker, study finance

dingbat wrote:If you want to be a lawyer, go to law school
if you want to be a banker, study finance

if you dont have the analytical/computational skills to land a i-banking job straight out, go to law school and a corporate firm, specialize, and become a valuable ibanker from more of a legal analyst perspective.....all about selling yourself.

V5

If you want to work in an investment bank and not as a lawyer, you need to go work in an investment bank. Goldman Sachs has a great internship program for college kids. If you're out of college, you should use whatever connection you can find (even just an alum from you college) and talk to him/her about applying for a job.

If that doesn't work, you should look at different hedge funds in the city.

If that doesn't work, you're 3rd option could be working for a ratings agency (S&P, Moodys, Finch) for a few years and trying to transition to ibanking.

Hopefully you have something on your resume that says "I want to be an analyst and have the skills to do so."

WanderingPondering wrote:If you want to work in an investment bank and not as a lawyer, you need to go work in an investment bank. Goldman Sachs has a great internship program for college kids. If you're out of college, you should use whatever connection you can find (even just an alum from you college) and talk to him/her about applying for a job.

If that doesn't work, you should look at different hedge funds in the city.

If that doesn't work, you're 3rd option could be working for a ratings agency (S&P, Moodys, Finch) for a few years and trying to transition to ibanking.

Hopefully you have something on your resume that says "I want to be an analyst and have the skills to do so."

I believe the Goldman Sachs program (or a similar program by Goldman Sachs) was ended this year.

WanderingPondering wrote:If you want to work in an investment bank and not as a lawyer, you need to go work in an investment bank. Goldman Sachs has a great internship program for college kids. If you're out of college, you should use whatever connection you can find (even just an alum from you college) and talk to him/her about applying for a job.

If that doesn't work, you should look at different hedge funds in the city.

If that doesn't work, you're 3rd option could be working for a ratings agency (S&P, Moodys, Finch) for a few years and trying to transition to ibanking.

Hopefully you have something on your resume that says "I want to be an analyst and have the skills to do so."

OP here....clearly stated that i was a first year associate at a firm....so none of this is helpful

Anonymous User wrote:

WanderingPondering wrote:If you want to work in an investment bank and not as a lawyer, you need to go work in an investment bank. Goldman Sachs has a great internship program for college kids. If you're out of college, you should use whatever connection you can find (even just an alum from you college) and talk to him/her about applying for a job.

If that doesn't work, you should look at different hedge funds in the city.

If that doesn't work, you're 3rd option could be working for a ratings agency (S&P, Moodys, Finch) for a few years and trying to transition to ibanking.

Hopefully you have something on your resume that says "I want to be an analyst and have the skills to do so."

OP here....clearly stated that i was a first year associate at a firm....so none of this is helpful

Don't worry, none of it is useful either way.
Hedge funds don't hire unknowns. There are enough people with X years of experience for them to choose from.
Same with ratings agencies - even their entry level jobs require work experience these days.

Absolutely Bank Finance/Banking if your firm has such department, followed by project finance and then capital markets. M&A, not so much.