Wachovia is not the company you want to join for investment banking. Sign with a mid-market firm or well-known boutique.
Pros
-The analyst program is pretty competitive and your analyst peers are smart colleagues. They make a good network to have. -The senior bankers are mostly from bulge bracket firms, so they usually have pretty good deal experience before coming to Wachovia. -Wachovia, being a large employer, adds name recognition to your resume outside of Wall Street, but within Wall Street, the name is not very powerful. -Wachovia invests a lot of money in information technology and resources
Cons
-Wachovia's senior bankers are either incompetent or have poor client relationships -Poor work/life balance -Pay is below the Street -The professional experience you get varies by the industry/product group you are in. If you are stuck in an unrespectable group at Wachovia, then your skills will be lackluster and your exit opps will be minimal. - The associates are the weak link in the chain. Most come from engineering backgrounds and have little communication skills or have lackluster abilitities. If they were better, they would have made it to the buy-side already or a better firm. The analysts are typically smarter than their associates -Senior bankers rarely help their analysts or associates jump to another bank or the buy-side. They don't take the time of day to help with career advancement. -Wachovia is a "confused" firm in terms of its niche. At many times, it will go after deals involving small cap companies and compete with many boutique banks, and then Wachovia will attempt to play with the bulges for large cap clients. It needs to find an identity and stick with it. -Wachovia's investment banking reputation is one of the poorest on Wall Street. Pick a mid-market investment bank like Piper Jaffray, Harris Williams, or William Blair before you join Wachovia.