I have two paths i could persue with long term goal in IB then later PE.
1. What’s stronger for a career path to IB
2. What’s more fun or exciting (since i think i can technically transfer both to IB, this is a factor)
3. Which would you choose and why?
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Big4 -> IB usually come from M&A, FDD or Vals.
In ranking from most to least target on paper they are 1) M&A 2) Vals 3) FDD. However, all of them each have their respective skill set and value that they bring. Big4 M&A is PowerPoint heavy whereas FDD you will spend 80% of your day in Excel.
I would argue the most technical and valuable learning would be in FDD. It is relatively straight forward to make a 3 statement model or DCF compared to a Quality of Earnings (QoE) or working capital adjustments you do in FDD. Accounting skills are incredibly useful for understanding the working of a deal and you can just learn the valuation skill on your own.
If you back your ability to learn the technical skills for IB, networking and ability to communicate the relevance and value of your time in FDD I would go with that service line.
However, if you want to take the more risk averse path chose either M&A or Vals.
The marginal difference between these services line's ability to get you into IB is probably not significant enough to be concerned about.
Pick the team you think the people are more your vibe IMO
Ex Big 4 Val’s guy here.
Generally I think switching from FDD would be easier because of the QoE experience you gain. I think valuations is far more interesting. Either way with networking you should be good. Can’t go wrong with either as they both can be spun into transferable roles.
Both are good options but I'd lean valuations. Just be sure it's a relevant team. I can't speak to all Big 4's, but I know KPMG has a various amount of teams and get bucketed into "Economic Valuation Services", but you want to be in the team that gets their hands dirty with PPAs (I think it's just called Valuations, so like EVS - Valuations).
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