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Your firm just gave you a pretty unheard of opportunity, to move from support ops to the investment side is not typically offered. You would be crazy not to take this. If your trying to compare a FO position at a LO HF vs. being a career banker, there shouldnt be a single person on this site advising you to take the IBD route. The only, and I do mean only rationale for choosing IBD is if you need sponsorship longterm and you're concerned about the HF getting tanked during the inevitable recession in '23.
From a comp perspective, from a interest perspective, from every perspective I can think of, the HF offers a much more enticing opportunity. No one in their right mind takes IBD over a HF role. Yes the HF role comes with more risk and less of a transparent career trajectory, but dont choose IBD because it is safe. Everyone will tell you the buy side is more interesting because there is inherent truth in that. Corp Dev may not be as sexy as PE or working at HF, but I still find the work to be 10x more interesting than banking. All of my friends in their 3rd year of banking or later are bored out of their skulls, tired of going through the same motions. I dont know how people continue to do it year after year, when selling companies isnt really as sexy as people make it out to be. There is no investment thesis, growth bets, ties to macroeconomics (at least to the same degree of the buy side), or complex modeling like there is on the buy side.
Roll the dice and take this extremely unique opportunity.
Lastly, and I cant believe I forgot to mention this, going from BO to IBD is no easy path, despite getting into an M7. You probably would succeed given your work ethic, but if we enter a recession shortly you could suddenly find yourself fighting for an Associate spot at a boutique or MM. This whole IBD / PE route you described is nothing more than a back of the envelope plan, which may or may not come to fruition. The FO HF offer is real
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