GS vs. BlackRock

I am a non-target junior interested in investing. Which of the following would be a better opportunity for the summer?

GS S&T (lets just say high yield/distressed desk) vs. BlackRock Fixed Income (don't know which fund) SA

I have been reading Fabozzi and distressed debt analysis and am interested in fixed income....which of the above offers would be better in terms of lifestyle, pay, exit opps, and most importantly, learning opportunity?

 
Prangs:

I am a non-target junior interested in investing. Which of the following would be a better opportunity for the summer?

GS S&T (lets just say high yield/distressed desk) vs. BlackRock Fixed Income (don't know which fund) SA

I have been reading Fabozzi and distressed debt analysis and am interested in fixed income....which of the above offers would be better in terms of lifestyle, pay, exit opps, and most importantly, learning opportunity?

It depends on what BlackRock fund or role, given there are several of them ranging from investment research to account management within fixed income. If its an analyst role within an actual fund, that would be the only role within BlackRock I'd take over a GS trading role.
 
TheFamousTrader:

I guess the whole Sankaty Advisors thing didn't quite work out given that it's not even part of the consideration? Serious question.

Hahahaha. Still talking to them (haven't interviewed). I have offers from GS and JPM that expire the 31st and 24th respectively. Sankaty Superdays are in February. My contact at BLK said that their HR is starting to accelerate the process for a few people with exploding offers...trying to debate whether I should say no to GS if I get BLK....just to then try and get Sankaty and say no to BLK (the 2 weeks after getting BLK would probably provide enough time to interview with Sankaty).

Good memory haha.

 
Best Response
Prangs:
TheFamousTrader:

I guess the whole Sankaty Advisors thing didn't quite work out given that it's not even part of the consideration? Serious question.

Hahahaha. Still talking to them (haven't interviewed). I have offers from GS and JPM that expire the 31st and 24th respectively. Sankaty Superdays are in February. My contact at BLK said that their HR is starting to accelerate the process for a few people with exploding offers...trying to debate whether I should say no to GS if I get BLK....just to then try and get Sankaty and say no to BLK (the 2 weeks after getting BLK would probably provide enough time to interview with Sankaty).

Good memory haha.

Ahhh, I see. Congrats on securing GS and JPM. You're on a very nice winning streak here. Best of luck getting BlackRock and Sankaty as well. Happened to remember as I was reading a lot about Sankaty at the time!

When it comes to GS vs. BLK, I'd say if you are sure that you want to do public investments in the long-run, BLK can definitely be a very nice choice, especially PMG FI (although the hours can be no better at BLK PMG FI vs. GS). I personally would take BLK, but that's just me. From a prestige/recognition point of view this would be quite a trivial debate as both offer that. So I would go with which of the two you like better in terms of culture, the people you'd be working with, which has higher conversion rates to FT and whether you ultimately want to jump to the BS as soon as possible (i.e. now) or you want that SS background to start with.

EDIT: just saw your criteria. My opinion/experience of friends in the BLK FI group:

Lifestyle: as suggested above, in theory BLK should be less harsh in terms of hours, but that may not be the case as people are also worked hard there (weekends are definitely not always free). The class sizes are obviously much bigger at GS, so if you want University 2.0, then GS should be your choice.

Pay: you start off on less at BLK vs. GS, not sure what's the progression later down the line (i.e. 5+ years), but I'm also unsure whether you'll spend that much time with your first firm anyway.

Exit Opportunities: I would say if you want to be on the BS (markets) long-term and not deviate to other BS options (VC/PE) then BLK is an insanely good start, but I guess an argument could be made that GS is slightly safer due to the wider recognition, especially outside of finance (in case you'd want to do something completely different).

Learning Opportunity: GS will be much more structured, whereas at BLK it will also be largely down to you how much of an effort will you make to pick the brains of your PM(s). It is quite common knowledge that you learn more when you actually invest yourself, so I would say BLK wins this, but you also don't build as big of a network with the BS whilst being on the BS yourself. For network building, interacting with different people who have very different views about the world - SS is the place to be. Also, if you're in to shorter-term stuff, SS allows you to better understand market sentiment as you're always in the centre of everything.

My views, not cold hard facts. Hope it helps!

 
mdk0102:
HFS without a doubt.

Hi mdk0102, would you mind elaborating a bit on the reasons? I was thinking that perhaps I would get a broader exposure at BlackRock.

 

They're different beasts. HFS sounds like it's basically just a fund of hedge funds (nb I've never worked there). If you want to do that, fine. BMACS (which I know very well) includes that kind of stuff, but also lots of other kinds of directly managed funds. The core of it (within the active allocation division at least) is asset allocation, ie should we be in Brazilian equities or American Treasuries, what's going to happen to the mortgage market in Eastern Europe, should be be long or short the Dow? Some of their absolute return funds are very similar to a global macro style hedge fund. They have the fund of hedge funds business (also fund of PE funds) but also lots of other, much more interesting work.

 

Congrats on the offers. It really depends on what you want to do. Would you rather be working with financial modeling or with the tech group?

Both are amazing companies to work for and you can't go wrong picking either one. Pick the position that you are most interested in so that hopefully you can better enjoy your summer.

 

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