CVP for a career banker

I'll provide a bit more of a grounded, or since CVP is so overhyped by prospects on this forum, perhaps contrarian view.

Pros: CVP's comp is high by even EB standards. The deal experience here is tremendous - you get very hands-on with every deal and really get to learn the intricacies of doing deals. "Strategic advisory" for long-time clients gives you a slightly better variety of work experience and a break from just traditional M&A execution. You're treated as an adult here - as long as your bring your A game every day the seniors are fine with how you get your work done. Lots of seniors actually care about mentorship. CVP has imo the best junior intellectual firepower on the street - whatever CVP does with its junior recruiting (personally lateraled), it works.

Cons: While compensation is still high, CVP's distance with the rest of the street gets smaller every year and the compensation is no longer "sky high" like it used to be. The firm's struggled with scaling while still maintaining its business model - CVP's traditionally differentiated itself to clients by priding itself on its very personalized execution for every deal, and the firm sells itself on offering "less-commoditized" advice. That's worked very well when the firm has traditionally done mostly large-cap deals, but as the firm's grown larger and moved down-market as new senior promotes chase smaller deals, that model doesn't hold up as well and all the customized work starts to break down. Everyone's always expected to bring their A game, which is much harder than it sounds - seniors demand 110% all the time and as a result pressure and hours are always high. Also accounts-based staffing sucks - great if your 2-3 accounts are slow, but if your 2-3 accounts are all on fire you get worked hard.

Other things: CVP's culture is...interesting, almost cult-like in how you meet those McKinsey consultants that actually believe the firm's whole PR about being the decision-makers in the most transformational projects making the world a better place (observing as a lateral). It's fascinating - the firm ingrains its culture within its prospects on day 1 (and WSO idolizing CVP probably doesn't help), and the firm's focus on retaining talent and promoting from within means that that culture is pretty deeply ingrained across the ranks. A side thing is that the people at CVP definitely have a better-than-thou ego, but in a way where they don't flex it loudly.

Overall, CVP is a great firm, but it's absolutely not leaps and bounds above every other EB and BB as WSO would make it seem like. The firm has its own problems and quirks, and at the end of the day is still IB. If you hold CVP on a pedestal compared to other "small" EBs like PJT or PWP you'll only be disappointed.