I have a group pref day coming up in April and I'm starting to think of what groups I might want to work for. From what I've read and the people I've talked to, it seems like M&A is considered to be the most coveted of the product/industry groups. What are the reasons for this? In general, how would you guys rank groups?
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Depends on the bank, obviously but in general M&A is attractive to a lot of people because it's a product group so you get to work on deals in a variety of industries and it's generally regarded as the most technical group. But again, depends on the bank.
It offers the most applicable exp for PE and HF
cuz its the shit LOL. but on a realistic note M&A is the sacred path to Private Equity, don't know much about Hedge Funds,
No, i mean product
An m&a analyst will, in many banks, arguably get the most exposure to financial modeling and analysis. It along with LevFin are often very popular for PE placement because they are the most "quant". Your industry groups will do most of the pitching and bringing deals. So, technically, the industry groups don't charge the client anything. The bill to the client will show 2 m&a's 7capital raises & 1 restructuring = 100MM in fees, something like that.
However if your bank has a particularly strong industry group that's a real hitter, then sometimes the MD's in that group will have their own teams execute some of the product services because they have insight into serving the client better than a separate product group. For instance, the bank I'm working at this summer is a tech industry group. However because they're so far from the m&a group and in the hub of the tech industry; the office raises it's own capital and does it's own m&a.
So how would an analyst in an industry group compete with M&A/lev fin analysts for private equity jobs? Or are you better off trying your best to do a rotation into M&A?
An industry-specific PE firm may value the combination of industry/technical execution skills that junior coverage guys get more than the skills a general M&A analyst will develop...
The split out of the technical work is different at different banks, but an industry coverage guy certainly has the chance to develop good modelling/technical skills. Calling it "quant" though is inaccurate...
Why would rather do that? Just wondering. Getting shoved into a cubicle and getting dumped on with work isn't as enticing as raising capital.
What exactly does sponsors levfin do?
They do a lot of modeling. If you're scared of work, you shouldn't be doing IBD anyways. Back office would be more your calling. Modeling = buyside exits. Also, a financial sponsor is usually a private equity firm. You are talking with top PE shops the whole time and you make great relationships. Many PE shops go to Sponsors groups to recruit first when hiring.
you crack me up .. with that kind of wisdom, you should be a career coach
If you have a strong interest in a particular industry space, you'd be best served in that industry group at a bank where that group does it's own execution (e.g. in TMT - GS/MS/CS TMT groups all do their own M&A). That way, you have a strong base in modeling for general PE recruiting and are also in contention for industry-focused shops. However, if you do not have a particular affinity toward any industry / all the groups at your bank rely on the M&A product team - the M&A group will, for all the reasons noted above, usually provide excellent further opportunities. Also as noted by other posters, levfin is desirable for PE recruiting for the same reasons as M&A while sponsors helps due to the constant interaction with the sponsors with whom you're recruiting.
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