Best Response

You have no obligation of making a decision before hearing from GS/MS. Interview with them, decide if BX is best for you. Also, note that internal mobility within BX is extraordinarily difficult, so if you want BX PE for next year FT, I would go with GS IBD.

But that's just me - BX M&A is a dream job for most of us on here. Congrats.

 

Look, I don't mean to be a dick, but as much as the overall reputation of JPM as a bank has improved since the financial crisis, it is abundantly clear to me after my conversations with headhunters that the exit opportunities available to analysts are not on par with those available to analysts at GS/MS. On the other hand, if I were an associate, I would much prefer JPM to, say, MS, but I am looking at analyst postions and exit opportunities to HFs.

That said, the last thing I want to do is switch this thread into a tiering of banks. If we could keep this discussion focused on BX, I would appreciate it.

 

"Competitive resumes" don't mean much, honestly. That just gets you a first round. Know people who interned at BBs as sophomores and didn't get past first round for GS interviews. Go through supers, hope you get an offer, work from there. Congrats on BX, but I wouldn't bank on more offers just because you look good on paper. By the time you get to Supers, everyone does.

 
triplectz:
"Competitive resumes" don't mean much, honestly. That just gets you a first round. Know people who interned at BBs as sophomores and didn't get past first round for GS interviews. Go through supers, hope you get an offer, work from there. Congrats on BX, but I wouldn't bank on more offers just because you look good on paper. By the time you get to Supers, everyone does.
Yeah but he's got an offer that he can leverage pretty strongly. I think you have a good shot at GS/MS but that doesn't necessarily mean you will get in with the top groups. I agree with the guy above that you should interview, get potential offers, and see what the other offers can do for you in terms of group placement. Like if MS said you'd be a shoo in for Media/Comm but can't guarantee M&A the that's something to consider.
 

You will probably get an offer from GS/MS, so that shouldn't be the discussion here. You are good enough at interviewing to get the BX offer AND you have that now to leverage for GS/MS. I think where you should choose depends on how much you value working on big name deals, the kind that headline the WSJ. Exit ops will be similar, in the sense that the name should get you any interview. But I would think they are a bit broader coming out of a globally recognized brand like GS/MS. Also, they take this for what it's worth, but I know people that turned down MS M&A for BX restructuring, which is typically recognized as having better HF exits than BX M&A. I also know multiple people that turned down either BX restructuring or M&A for GS, ending up in top groups (TMT/FIG), and turning down interviews at BX after obtaining the GS offer - as well as people that turned down GS for BX restructuring.

The point is that neither offer is objectively better than the other. Personally, I would take GS over your BX offer, but not MS. The less competitive groups at GS (Industrials, Healthcare, Lev Fin, Consumer/Retail) are better than the less competitive groups at MS. While the HF exits may not be better at GS, they aren't going to be worse, and GS will help preserve your options for non HF exits.

 
Duke4Lyfe:
Dealflow is better at GS/MS
Do you mean deal flow per analyst or overall deal flow for the firm? What's the deal exposure per analyst (for example in LDN, A1s mostly do grunt work, 0 modeling)? % of pitching? Are these generic deals or creative, off piste deals? These are the questions he should be looking for answers to...
"After you work on Wall Street it’s a choice, would you rather work at McDonalds or on the sell-side? I would choose McDonalds over the sell-side.” - David Tepper
 

Take BX M&A. GS has a terribly low offer/acceptance rate.

The whole 'GS on my resume' only gets you so far. Think about it. Either BX M&A and $randgroup at GS will get you an interview at another firm if you prefer to switch / get you an interview at most HFs. After that, you're practically on your own.

Plenty of kids I know were extremely good on paper, accepted an internship at (the) GS and are now happy they secured a FT offer from a lower tier BB.

 
LiamNeeson:
Take BX M&A. GS has a terribly low offer/acceptance rate.

The whole 'GS on my resume' only gets you so far. Think about it. Either BX M&A and $randgroup at GS will get you an interview at another firm if you prefer to switch / get you an interview at most HFs. After that, you're practically on your own.

Plenty of kids I know were extremely good on paper, accepted an internship at (the) GS and are now happy they secured a FT offer from a lower tier BB.

Do you have a particular set of skills? skills you have acquired over a very long career?
"After you work on Wall Street it’s a choice, would you rather work at McDonalds or on the sell-side? I would choose McDonalds over the sell-side.” - David Tepper
 
Oreos:
LiamNeeson:
Take BX M&A. GS has a terribly low offer/acceptance rate.

The whole 'GS on my resume' only gets you so far. Think about it. Either BX M&A and $randgroup at GS will get you an interview at another firm if you prefer to switch / get you an interview at most HFs. After that, you're practically on your own.

Plenty of kids I know were extremely good on paper, accepted an internship at (the) GS and are now happy they secured a FT offer from a lower tier BB.

Do you have a particular set of skills? skills you have acquired over a very long career?

I have skills that make me a nightmare for people like you

 

I'd go for MS/GS (and I did), and here are the reasons why. To the guy who said take GS and not MS, I would agree that the weaker groups at GS (not sure why you mentioned consumer retail and industrials as those are 2 very strong industry groups at GS) are stronger than those at MS. On the other hand, in my mind this is balanced out by the fact that MS you are guaranteed an industry (or M&A) because they have a separate GCM (GS you could end up in LevFin decent but not great, ECM, DCM). Your resume must be stellar, and I doubt that would happen- you could probably get into a top group at either. Internal mobility at BX is much tougher than you would think- people don't regularly move to PE there. My biggest reasons (and I elaborated on this in an earlier thread) against BX were the following- 1. the analyst class there is that of an elite boutique- 8-10 analysts- as a summer this means basically 0 formal training and incredibly high expectations. I liked the idea of MS/GS more in the sense that there would be more analysts to hang out with, and for FT an extended training program- if you are already an M&A wizard/don't care about the atmosphere (being stuck with a tiny group of people) then this won't matter for you 2. The deals just aren't that great- BX M&A gets hyped way more than it should and places way better than it should purely because it is part of the larger Blackstone Group- sure they work on some good deals and they get on bunch of the BX PE deals, but generally speaking MS/GS are doing bigger and better deals 3. And most important I wanted to have the most options possible- the MDs through Analysts that I interviewed with/spoke with at Blackstone raved about the exit opportunities after spending 2 years there. Now I have no plans to spend 30 years in banking, but I also at this age don't have any set plans to switch out to PE in 2 years- I'll take things as they come at me, and while I think the GS cut-throat 'if we catch you on the phone with another firm you're fired" attitude is a bit extreme, I found it to be quite weird that a firm was attempting to sell itself to me by talking about how great my life would be after I spent 2 years there, it was quite off-putting. I'll add onto that that I think because BX PE >>>> BX M&A (people can argue that, I think it is 100% the case) there is a weird dynamic between the senior guys at BX M&A and how they feel about their own positions at the firm/the M&A practice in general.

My 2 (or more) cents- If this was BX Restructuring I might have another answer (though also probably unfair to compare that to GS/MS). Either way you go you will have plenty of options afterwards, and I think you can't go wrong with any 3 of them. FWIW- if GS/MS think you are that strong of a candidate you might be able to get an offer with either M&A (for MS) or TMT/FIG (for GS) in your contract (if those are the groups you would desire). Have seen it happen at other firms for top groups and wouldn't shock me if they did it as well. Best of luck with your decision.

PS- I wouldn't let offer rate or the 'fear' of a lower tier group at GS/MS scare you away from them. You sound like a smart kid (on paper anyways), and if you do a good job in the summer you'll get an offer FT wherever you accept for summer. I alluded to it above, but I also think you'll get into pretty much whatever group you want (as much as anyone will disagree, a ton of group placement is resume & school, both of which you have down).

 
hot1590:
joxy:
The camaraderie of an analyst class is important to me

This sounds like GS/MS > BX because of the class size.

Edit: actually, I guess you can make an argument for either way. But this can be another thing to consider.

Spot on - go for GS/MS and don't look back. The people that you work with as an analyst really do end up being a significant part of your network later down the line. At BX you'll be working with 8-9 other analysts versus the huge analyst class at GS or MS. If you want the camaraderie of an analyst class, you really can't beat GS/MS. Also, BX M&A really is overhyped by the private equity arm and you aren't going to be getting large deal exposure. You obviously have the credentials and the experience - go for GS/MS

 

BX M&A has better pay, easier hours, and guarantee of a top bucket spot unless you're abysmal (they don't do tiering). You're supported during recruiting and can do it openly. Exit opps: you'll get 90%+ interviews, including megafund PE & HF. Very few people, regardless of group, get every single interview. This holds even if you're at college-junior-boner-inducing GS TMT.

GS and MS have larger analyst classes and more prestigious deals.

You'll make more friends at GS and MS, especially during the first few weeks while you're all in training and blowing your relocation comp on ridiculously over-priced drinks.

Prestigious deals don't matter. You're going to have a great job and network coming out of any of the three. With BX, you also have a better shot of moving on internally if you do a good job.

 

GS/MS for a couple reasons

-BX doesn't have great deal flow - you won't be getting any exposure to larger deals and alot of the business that BX M&A gets comes from its PE business. If you want to work for interesting clients and work on interesting projects, you should go to GS/MS -GS/MS has a very large analyst class. If the type of camaraderie that you find in college is important to you, GS/MS should be your obvious choice. -Both options will give you great exit opps: you're from a target school with a strong GPA, whether you go to either option, you will get exit opportunities

 

GS's large analyst class is no guarantee of comraderie...you usually just work with the analysts in your sector group anyways.

Also, the hours at BX are MUCH better. Absolutely no facetime bs, lots of weekends off/few a hours of work, analysts probably go home at 11pm on an average weekday, but the best part is headhunters still think you're the shit. Every time I see my friend at MS he looks like he's ready to kill himself.

Lateraling to PE is also very easy. They'll let you interview with any group you want, often times before BX formally starts the recruiting process.

Also, for your question about exit ops, I think someone posted all the exit ops from BX M&A/restructuring in a previous thread but for M&A this year it included SAC, Och Ziff, and Baupost....so yeah pretty good

 
foiegras:
GS's large analyst class is no guarantee of comraderie...you usually just work with the analysts in your sector group anyways.

Also, the hours at BX are MUCH better. Absolutely no facetime bs, lots of weekends off/few a hours of work, analysts probably go home at 11pm on an average weekday, but the best part is headhunters still think you're the shit. Every time I see my friend at MS he looks like he's ready to kill himself.

Lateraling to PE is also very easy. They'll let you interview with any group you want, often times before BX formally starts the recruiting process.

Also, for your question about exit ops, I think someone posted all the exit ops from BX M&A/restructuring in a previous thread but for M&A this year it included SAC, Och Ziff, and Baupost....so yeah pretty good

Posts like this kill me...

 

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