Citi/Barclays/CS vs. PWP/Guggenheim vs. >$1B PE Fund

I'm looking for some insight as I go through the recruiting process. Looking at the non top-tier BB, EB, and MM PE firms. Hypothetically, if given an offer at each of the following firms, which ones are better or are they all about even?

I think all are great places to be, but making a decision is a bit harder than GS/Evercore vs. UBS/DB.

The end goal is still PE. I'm still more interested in PE, but wonder how much easier it is to move to a bigger fund after 2-year analyst stint in PE than recruiting as a BB analyst.

It would be great to hear your thoughts on what the best options are. Note: I haven't received any offers yet, I just want to get a better idea of all of this.

9 Comments
 

CS has only a couple groups that place well, Barclays has a ton of the coverage side. CS IB also seems to be downsizing as opposed to Barclays which seems to be putting more into IB.

 
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Very group dependent in order to choose between Citi/Barclays/CS. The best group at CS is better than a middling group at Citi, and you can say that about each bank's name swapped in there. Choose based on culture fit / group selection.

PWP has done very well and would also depend on cultural fit, if you want to do advisory work and not touch the capital markets, etc.

I personally think the banking analyst 2 year stint, while not very fun, is a much better way to start your PE career than doing a PE analyst role. You get on far more transactions, your training is better, you develop a far, far broader network over time (your banking analyst class will go all over the place / all over the world while your PE network will basically just be your firm as nobody wants to leave). You can make a bunch of mistakes, learn, and two years later start fresh again.

Be excellent to each other, and party on, dudes.
 

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