Answering "why valuation?" when you have a background in IB?

Have an interview with a Duff valuation group (not IB or as they call it Corp. Finance). I had an internship last summer with a small boutique but got some decent experience (not so great modeling exp. and deal flow wise, but other than that it was pretty good).

I had an interview earlier with a Big 4 valuation/TAS group, killed the technical part of the interview, but blanked/gave a relatively shitty answer for "why valuation, why don't you try for investment banking?". Wasn't moved on to the next round.

Honest answer: I'm struggling to break into IB and valuation is somewhat similar. Hours appear (are) noticeably better (don't want to say that of course).

I talked to someone at the firm and someone at a different firm that works in valuation but don't think I have my notes from our conversation anymore, will still name drop employee of course.

The best answer I could think of is talk about how I did a lot of marketing experience at my IB internship since it was a small and relatively young shop (didn't do that much modeling) whereas valuation seems to be more technical more of the times.

Or mention how a lot of work would be put into deals/pitches only to have something fall through at the 11th hour...but I'd imagine that is similar for a valuation group. Looks like their is still somewhat of an element of pitching in valuation too.

Any ideas? Not like I'm going from GS TMT to a random valuation group, but I struggled with the question last time.

Thanks

 
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