DB FIG versus HL Corp Fin

Are you applying to a post-college role or intern? If the former, then you have a pretty major decision to be making. But if you actually step back and ask yourself how important the decision is, it becomes that much more clear that the choice methodology shouldn't be more sophisticated than a random guess because nothing else could improve your odds of ending up in an actually better situation. Many people will tell you that FIG is "quirky" and arcane and specialized and will only lead to a world of you ultimately being given a ten-toggle excel sheet that whirls and twirls a bunch of inputs to get outputs. Of course the notion that HL Corp gives you a softy type professional upbringing where you'll learn how to wash your keyboard as you compare rent expense across a few different companies in comparison. The possibility that this won't also end you in some specialized crazy room where you're the "healthcare specialist" and are forced somehow to have views on governmental policies and link those to your pitch books so that somehow you're cutting-edge is pretty strong. It really doesn't matter - in one case you'll be a financial wizard unapologetically casting yourself as a dork who only considers capital structure and thinks in terms of the system, while the latter allows you to paint an interesting tail of two mesmerizingly different worlds (this business spends more but this business owns its own buildings, and therefore when you normalize...they're absolutely the same!) ultimately realizing that to actually do something you have to become some sort of a gizmo specialist like the financial dweeb you might have become. In terms of exit opps, completely irrelevant, and timing other too-difficult-to-contemplate factors makes it something not worth considering. You could end up at a different bulge bracket, or a different group. May hate your boss or love your boss and decide to stay. Could end up finding a small hedge fund that you'll love until you realize they're using you like a slave and then you may jump again to a hedge fund that respects you except when it comes to compensation and then you may go to one where they respect your compensation but only if you earn it which miraculously becomes very hard all of a sudden (to earn it) and then you may decide that stepping away and setting up an office with computers that work every now and then but will full connectivity (even phones) to the outside world and with day-to-day swings between "i have an idea to make money" to "lets leave early" dominate the back-and-forth zig-zag decision tree you oversee (as CEO and President of course).