Exit opportunities: where analysts go, and what each move trades away
Most analysts do not stay in banking, and the jobs they leave for are the reason many of them joined. Each exit trades something - pay, hours, the kind of work, how easy it is to move again - and the most talked-about one is the hardest to get.
The analyst seat
Private marketsBuy and own companies.
Growth equity
Venture capital
Real estate private equity
Public marketsInvest in traded securities.
Inside a companyBetter hours, lower pay.
Corporate development
Corporate finance
Out of financeHard to come back from.
Startups
An MBA, then elsewhere
The exits named by Mergers & Inquisitions (updated March 2026) and Wall Street Prep (updated July 2026), grouped by what the job does with money, not by prestige; the notes are the trade-off each source describes.1,2
01when people leave
Banking as a stepping stone1,3
Wall Street Prep describes most junior analysts as working a one-to-two-year stint in banking as a stepping stone to a different career path; Mergers & Inquisitions puts the traditional route at two to three years. Either way, the plan most analysts arrive with is to leave, and the exits are what the analyst years are being traded for.
The exits narrow with every promotion4
Analysts have the widest choice of buy-side roles, associates fewer, and a vice president finds a move to the buy side hard. The ladder page covers why; the practical point is that leaving is a decision best made while it is still cheap.
Staying is an exit too1
Mid-to-senior bankers earn mid-six-figure to seven-figure pay, and most buy-side seats only beat that at the very top. The article that catalogues the exits is subtitled "the myth of the buy-side job" for a reason: for someone who likes the work, staying can be the better trade.
02private equity, growth and venture
Private equity: the default, and the hardest1,3
Private equity buys controlling stakes in companies, usually funded with substantial debt, and it is the exit most analysts aim for. It is very difficult to get into and hard to rise in: the usual profile is a bulge bracket or elite boutique bank, a top university and grades, and relevant earlier experience. Hours at the large funds still run to 60 to 70 a week, and the very large pay is at the top or in starting your own firm. The private equity page covers the recruiting process.
Growth equity: minority stakes in companies that already work3
Growth equity firms take minority stakes in late-stage, fast-growing companies with proven traction, often on the way to an IPO. There is no buyout debt to model, and more of the job is judging a market and a management team.
Venture capital: better hours, less money, a hard ladder1,3
Venture firms take minority stakes in early-stage startups and expect most of them to fail, relying on one success to return the fund several times over. Analysts who move there get better hours and a better lifestyle than in private equity but earn quite a bit less, and moving up is harder because partner-track and non-partner-track roles are sharply split. More of the time goes on markets and networking than on financial analysis.
03hedge funds and asset management
Hedge funds want a track record, not a deal list1,3
Hedge funds invest in traded stocks and bonds, with strategies from long-short to market-neutral and relative value. Moving there takes a real interest in investing and specific ideas you can defend; the deal experience that sells a banker to a private equity fund counts for less.
Different stress, and a narrower skill set1
The day is more stressful because the market moves all day, but there are fewer weekend-destroying deal emergencies. The skills are specialised enough that moving between funds or out of the industry later is harder than it is from private equity.
04corporate development and corporate finance
Corporate development: deals, from the buyer's side1
Corporate development teams run a company's own acquisitions and longer-term projects. It suits someone who likes deals but wants a better lifestyle than private equity, pays less than the buy side, and from a well-known company leaves plenty of routes open afterwards, including business school or back into banking.
Corporate finance: the slow road to CFO1
Corporate finance is internal work - planning, budgeting, treasury - rather than a front-office role. The hours are the most regular of any exit and the pay the lowest; the long-term goal is usually CFO, reached more slowly than a banker reaches managing director.
next: leaving finance →
05leaving finance
Startups: the skills transfer least1
A banker's skill set is not particularly useful at an early startup, only at a later-stage one with budgets and customers, and the risk-adjusted returns are poor. The larger cost is that after years running a business it is almost impossible to go back into finance.
The MBA costs about two years of income1,2
An MBA is the standard way to change direction after banking, and it is also the standard way into banking at associate level. Its real cost is roughly two years of lost income, which is why it is a pivot rather than a default.