I'm signed to a firm that does group placement, and M&A has been a group that's one of my top choices. From what I've observed, M&A seems to be a very competitive group to place into at most banks.
Are there any cons of being in M&A as opposed to a coverage group? I want to make sure I understand the group as a whole instead of blindly trying to place into it
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Depends on your perception. If you want to be a career banker, M&A might be an easier place to do it, because hardly anyone stays in the group beyond Analyst (everyone is gunning for buyside). Coverage groups will have more retention and thus more competition, but you will also be able to forge more lasting relationships with peers at your level.
M&A will also be more sweaty - that's the real con. The complexity of your analyses will be higher than your peers in coverage groups, but the depth and detail will be lower ie. you will churn out models, but won't get to do much in the way of industry trend analyses and deep dives into company structure. Most consider this "fluff", but again it all depends on your perception. You could literally close deals working for clients where you hardly understand their product or industry.
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