Big 4 M&A vs BB Equity Research
Hello ladies and gentleman of WSO. I have a choice to make...
(most likely) Analyst 2 at a BB Research team (could be analyst 3 / associate 1) or... Assistant manager / manager (to be determined) in a big 4 M&A group
My guess is base salary will be very similar at both. Some managerial experience with the big 4 offer, whereas I would be the most junior person in the research team
Any thoughts on the best path forward would be very much appreciated. I am very close to getting both offers but once I get one, I will be pressed to sign very quickly, hence my reason for asking your advice
Long term goals....I don't know at this point. I like both markets and working with companies. Planning to stick with whatever company I choose for the long term (4+ years) as at this point I am definitely a job hopper and need to show that I can commit (I started in back office).
Your advice would be very much appreciated.
There are a number of things to consider here, and given that you aren't sure what long-term goals are, hopefully this can help guide your thinking.
The upward trajectory at Big 4 is much more clearly defined if that's something that's important to you. As long as you do your job well you can make the jump to Manager/Senior Manager, but the Partner promote is a little less structured. A bit different in ER from what I've heard. Anecdotally friends in smaller teams have mentioned that sometimes people end up waiting for their superiors to either get promoted or leave in order to get their promotion. Not sure how true this is, but thought I'd throw it out there.
In terms of flexibility from an exit perspective I would say ER definitely takes the cake here. With ER you can move into banking, HF space, AM, and to a lesser extent corporate development. At the Big 4 it's typically much more difficult to move around once you get to the Senior Manager level (assuming you don't jump ship before you make it there). If it is Big 4 M&A, there is the opportunity to lateral to a bank and move into PE later if that's your thing.
Again, lot's to consider and because you aren't sure what you want to do 5+ years down the line I would say take the ER offer when it comes in. If you can envision yourself as a Partner at the Big 4 then by all means go for it, but if I were in your shoes I'd be putting a lot of emphasis on potential exit opportunities. Last thing I would want to do is put myself in a position where I felt pigeon-holed.
Just my 2 cents.