Best for lateraling: Deal volume vs. Deal Value?
I was wondering what would improve my chances of lateraling to a BB later on in my career the most:
- An M&A analyst position at a bank/team that does many deals in the 50 - 100 mn. space, hence offers a good transaction experience.
- Or an M&A analyst position at a bank/team that only does a very small number of deals every year, but the deals they do, on average, are valued around 1 bn.
Both banks are (very) low tier, so brand name doesn’t play a role here.
Any insights would be welcome, thanks in advance!
Would say deal value and what you actually did on the deal. Your role in the deal should be the most important.
Let’s say you did 20 deals... but you can only put 3-4 of them on your resume, so how would they know you did that many? Have never gotten the question of how many deals youve closed and most of the time just talk about one headline transaction.
Okay true, that sounds like a valid point. Thank you for your comment
In reality, I personally think having more volume / reps makes you a stronger candidate. But in practice, having a few larger higher profile deals can be flashier and more effective at attracting interest.
Yeah exactly, I was thinking the same and exactly the reason for this post. I would be more comfortable with extensive transaction experience when lateraling, but 50 - 100 mn. deals are rarely known outside the parties involved and seem to be quite different from the deals that BBs are involved in.
In all honesty, both don't matter that much. As someone who has lateraled twice and now at a top EB, I consider networking and speaking intelligently the most important factors. Networking (sometimes just cold emailing someone on the team after you see a posting online) will help get your first round, and it's purely performance-based from there. They aren't going to ding you mid-process just because the name of your bank or the number of deals on your resume when you've aced all your interviews. Banks aren't too concerned with deal experience because when you lateral as a junior analyst, wherever you end up will give you another 1-2 years of analyst training and get you the exposure you need. However, this doesn't mean that you should go to a shop that does all pitching and no execution. But from your options, it seems like you will be doing live deals whichever one you end up choosing. In addition, it's more than ok to list active/ongoing projects/deals on your resume, as long as you can speak to them in detail.
If I were you, I would focus on deal team size (whether you'll be the one running the models, etc.), culture, location, and sector focus. But please know that whichever one you end up choosing will get you looks from BBs if you network correctly.
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