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One reason that you see this sort of behavior in the first place is that very few people are able to successfully become lifetime bankers. The skillset required

One reason that you see this sort of behavior in the first place is that very few people are able to successfully become lifetime bankers. The skillset required to be an excellent investment banking analyst is extremely different than the skillset needed to be an investment banking vice-president (or higher). Modeling skills and pitchbook formatting knowledge will do little for you if your job is to try to bring business to your bank. Analysts know that the internal track will end at the associate level (or, more likely, they'd be booted out after two years with no internal promotion to associate at all). Therefore, it makes sense for them to jump ship, and the subsequent prisoner's dilemma also makes sense. What's interesting is that a similar thing happens after two years as a private equity associate, in that almost all PE associates are booted out after two years, being told that they don't have the skillset to be promoted within the shop. At this point, I believe that many employees move onto internal corporate development, but my knowledge here is pretty incomplete about what happens after that break in the track. ("Greatness", perhaps?[0]) [0] http://www.leveragedsellout.com/2007/07/breaks-in-the-track http://www.leveragedsellout.com/2007/07/breaks-in-the-track

spuiszis 12y ago
> Analysts know that the internal track will end at the associate level (or, more likely, they'd be booted out after two years with no internal promotion to associate at all) > What's interesting is that a similar thing happens after two years as a private equity associate, in that almost all PE associates are booted out after two years Many PE shops, VC funds and banks do this because they want you to get an MBA. This is why many of the associate hiring positions are described as pre-MBA associate and post-MBA associate. Post-MBA associates are the ones that will go onto internal promotions and potentially the partner track.

spuiszis 12y ago

> Analysts know that the internal track will end at the associate level (or, more likely, they'd be booted out after two years with no internal promotion to associate at all) > What's interesting is that a similar thing happens after two years as a private equity associate, in that almost all PE associates are booted out after two years Many PE shops, VC funds and banks do this because they want you to get an MBA. This is why many of the associate hiring positions are described as pre-MBA associate and post-MBA associate. Post-MBA associates are the ones that will go onto internal promotions and potentially the partner track.