Path to MBA-Best choice in this situation?

Hey guys.. So if my goal is to try and set myself up for Top MBA then PE, what opportunity would you go with out of just these two?
1)Non-elite Boutique middle market M&A investment bank (NYC)
-Interned here with a full time offer
-The boutique has good deal flow and client/director exposure
-closes ~20 deals per year (30-250million deal range) on a small team
2)Top Tier BB (NYC office) (Goldman, JPM,MS,BAML) syndicated finance analyst role
-This is a hybird Community Bank/Investment Bank role, essentially running debt financing deals for middle market clients, modeling/pitch heavy role
-Work directly with IB and CB.. Under the CB since it works with middle market corporate clients, sits on the floor with Debt Capital market, but operates separately
~40-50 deals per year on a small coverage team, again, good client exposure

This scenario is considering just these two options to start as an analyst right out of undergrad. Would love to hear some thoughts. Thanks in advance, this is my first post after reading this site for years

 
Best Response

If your goal is PE, you should aim to get pre-MBA PE experience, because traditionally a lot of the post-MBA PE jobs are taken by those who already had prior experience.

The classic path is 2 years as an IBD analyst + 2 years as a PE analyst/associate (different firms have different titles for the pre-MBA roles, which are typically designed to be 2 years). So you'd be putting together and submitting your applications 1 year into your PE job.

Others may be able to chime in here, but you may also want to look into which of these job opportunities have placed analysts into pre-MBA PE roles.

Alex Chu www.mbaapply.com
 

Thanks for the insight... Wish I could have gone the traditional route, but I am graduated and these are my options as of now

The boutique IB does not have a track record of putting people in MBA programs, so safe to say it is a no-name m&A firm but with some good middle market deals/experience.. MBA placement ppl I have talked to also said, as you mentioned, that it is hard placing people in top programs from companies that have not placed anyone in the past.. So I guess my main concern is M&A experience will not make up for the non name brand..

The BB is a top 4 but my main concern there is because it is not a a full fledged IB analyst position, does the name brand make up for it...however, the work is more PE related (cash flow&debt modeling, similar to LevFin in some aspects)

 

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Alex Chu www.mbaapply.com

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