Ah, yes: the industry group vs. product group debate. Just like the debate over cardio vs. strength training, models vs. bottles, and boutiques vs. bulge brackets, there's so much fervor on both sides that you'd almost think war was about to break out. Actually, I lied: it's not quite that heated, but let's dive right into the debate and see what the arguments for both sides are. Say What? Product groups always work on a specific deal type, such as M&A or debt, across all different industries - examples include: ->Mergers & Acquisitions ->Equity Capital Markets ->Debt Capital Markets ->Leveraged Finance ->Restructuring So if you're in the M&A group, you'll always work on acquisitions of other companies across all industries and you'll build so many merger models that you may get Excel burned into your retina. With industry groups, by contrast, you work within one industry but on many different types of deals - equity, debt, M&A, and so on. Examples include: ->Healthcare ->Natural Resources (Oil & Gas and Mining) ->Technology, Media & Telecommunications (TMT) ->Financial Institutions Group (FIG) ->Industrials ->Real Estate Investment Banking Pretty simple, right? A False Dichotomy Except that this division is wrong - or at least not 100% accurate. There are several sub-divisions of groups at a bank: 1.) Origination - These groups market and pitch for new clients, mostly for financings. 2.) Advisory - You advise companies on buying other companies. M&A. Gordon Gekko. 3.) Coverage - You do both origination and advisory work here, but you're focused on a specific sector such as industrials. When most people talk about "industry groups," they're referring to coverage groups. So there's more to it than the industry vs. product group distinction, and the notion that industry groups are 100% marketing and product groups are 100% execution is wrong.