Wall Street is changing. See the firms young people want to work for today.

Twenty years ago, getting jobs in private equity was an ultra-niche choice for MBA grads at the prestigious Wharton School.

According to the school's career report for 2004, just over 4% of MBA students in that year's graduating class were headed for jobs in private equity and venture capital. By contrast, more than 23% had landed investment banking and brokerage jobs.

Today, it's a different story: Just over 15% of the 2024 class went to work at investment banks, while close to 13% took jobs with firms that invest in privately held companies.

To some extent, this isn't a surprise as businesses once viewed as the Wild West of finance catch up to long-standing bank behemoths in market share, power, and prestige. Blackstone has gone from managing about $32 million in assets two decades ago to more than $1 trillion today. Citadel's market-making arm now handles one in every four trades on the stock market.

As part of Business Insider's series on career paths in finance, we set out to learn how these transformations are shaping career aspirations and trajectories. Do the old strongholds of prestige still remain in the eyes of Gen Z? Or have opinions — and options — changed?

We surveyed undergraduate finance students and members of campus finance clubs — stepping stones to Wall Street internships — about their career tracks, expectations, and motivations. In addition to the 150 survey responses we received across about a dozen schools (which is not a scientifically representative sample), we interviewed about 30 students from schools such as the University of Pennsylvania, Columbia University, and New York University. They asked to be anonymous to protect their future careers.

Almost all the young people I talked to, let's say ages 32 and below, said go to the boutique Columbia University student

A lot has changed, and at the same time, nothing really has. In our survey, names like Goldman Sachs and JPMorgan stuck out in popularity — but so did Centerview Partners, a boutique M&A shop, and Blackstone, the trillion-dollar alternative asset manager.

"I think the sentiment definitely is shifting," a Columbia University junior said. "The interest is more varied in terms of the old path of just, 'I want to go to a big bank.'"

When asked which financial firm or other employer they'd most like to work for, nearly an even number of respondants mentioned investment banks (59) and buy-side firms, a category that covers private equity firms and hedge funds (57). A good chunk of people — 28 — were unsure or unspecific about a dream firm. (These numbers don't add up to the 150 total respondents because not everyone answered this question, some answers were not applicable, and others mentioned multiple firms in their write-in answer.)

Across both banking and the buy side (so named because these firms tend to buy assets instead of selling products and services), a preference for brand names and large firms stood out.

Thirty-five responses mentioned the top 10 investment banks by assets, including JPMorgan, Morgan Stanley, and Goldman Sachs. Some of the reasons given included "reputation," "talented people to learn from," "prestige," and the ability to get an even better job down the road (known in the industry, and on the survey, as "exit opportunities").

Goldman Sachs was the most mentioned firm in the survey responses, with 14 write-in responses, followed by JPMorgan (12) as a close second.

Thirty-one responses mentioned the top 10 private equity firms by assets, including KKR, Blackstone, and Apollo. Another four mentioned the top 10 hedge funds by assets, including Citadel and Bridgewater. Reasons given included "higher pay and good preparation to one day start my own firm," "working on the biggest deals in the world," and "the ideal blend of prestige and work-life balance."

Of those, Blackstone, the world's largest alternative assets manager, was the standout for most votes (11).

One Columbia junior said he accepted an internship at a large bank because he's unsure which area of finance he wants to pursue long term.

"In the same firm, they are doing so many different things. They're engaging with these companies, and through multiple different touch points instead of doing just advisory," he said of his choice to work for one of the largest and most established banks, a category known as bulge bracket.

The Wharton student agreed.

"I don't know what I want to do. But I know I want to be in the finance industry," he said. "I want to learn as much as I possibly can. So if I were to design a perfect job right out of college, it honestly would be a bulge bracket investment banking job."

Our survey results and interviews found that smaller firms, including so-called boutique banks, were strong contenders. The Columbia junior, for example, described being torn between the bulge-bracket offer he accepted and an offer from a boutique bank.

When seeking advice about which one to choose, he noticed a generational divide.

"Almost all the young people I talked to, let's say ages 32 and below, said go to the boutique," he told BI about his experience. "Everyone 32 and above said go to the bulge bracket."

Everyone 32 and above said go to the bulge bracket. Columbia University student

When asked which finance firm or other employer they would most like to work for and why, 26 respondents mentioned non-bulge-bracket banks, including the boutique firms Centerview, Evercore, and Perella Weinberg.

Centerview, which advised Paramount on its $28 billion merger with Skydance in 2024, is known for being one of the highest payers for junior analysts on the street. It was the fourth-most-written-in response, with nine students saying they aspired to work there.

Boutique banks tend to focus on specific business lines or even industries, like entertainment or tech. These firms have developed a reputation for giving young bankers more hands-on deal experience, better work-life balance, and, in some cases, better pay.

The Columbia junior, for example, highlighted what he saw as a greater opportunity to stand out at a smaller firm. "You're not going to be a cog in a wheel simply because the denominator is smaller, you are now more important, you get to do more."

Another Columbia student, a sophomore, said boutique banks were the new mark of prestige among some of his classmates, while describing bulge brackets as the "baseline."

"It's like, OK, Columbia has been a target school for bulge brackets for however long, but the new name brands on the street are different now. It's Centerview, it's Moelis, and it's Evercore," he said.

The smaller-is-better crowd was also visible on the buy side. Twenty-nine responses mentioned firms that are smaller than the top 10 private equity firms or hedge funds by assets, including buy-side shops like Warburg Pincus, Silver Point Capital, and Hellman & Friedman. The reasons given included "excellent culture," "meaningful work," and "better work-life balance."

Students were also asked to share their dream finance jobs — not the one they expect to have upon graduation, but the one they want down the road. Buy-side jobs were the most popular: Eighty-five answers (equivalent to about 57% of respondents) mentioned private equity, hedge funds, or venture capital in some way.

The recruiting process for these some of these jobs can get pretty intense. According to the students BI spoke with, the benefits include more interesting work and slightly less grueling hours.

Autonomy and leadership also featured prominently among the survey responses, with 29 writing about entrepreneurship, running their own business, or holding a C-suite position.

These write-in answers included aspirations like being an "entrepreneur," "starting my own business," "running my own investment firm," and becoming a "CFO of a Fortune 500 company" or "CIO of a hedge fund."

Many of these answers overlapped with buy-side aspirations — like the students who said their dream was to "own my own hedge fund," or "run my own small PE firm."

Notably, just 15 answers about long-term dream jobs in finance mentioned banking.

About a dozen responses reflected uncertainty or long-term ambitions elsewhere, like in corporate law. A handful of those answers also expressed some of the values Gen Z is widely known for, saying they wanted to have a job that allowed them to "take time off while maintaining a life/raising a family," "be happy with where I work everyday," and "use finance for social good."

(Again, these numbers don't add up to the 150 total respondents because not everyone answered this question, some answers were not applicable, and others mentioned multiple dream jobs in their write-in answer.)

The Columbia junior doesn't know what he wants to do long term within finance, but he summed up his dream job this way:

"I just think dealing with the most complex problems, in whatever respective space you're in, is the ideal job for me," he said. "That's what gets me excited."

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