Does it still make sense for me to switch into IB?

Hi everyone,

My situation is that I have an offer from a top MM bank (Blair, Baird, etc.) in a strong group. I am well into my mid 20s. I should make $120k this year and jump on promotion to about $140k a year later. My hours are about 60/week and there is plenty of upward mobility. 

With respect to MM investment banking, I believe that it is accurate to say that after a 2 year analyst stint, my corporate development exits would pay me the exact same as my existing job, with comparatively less upward mobility, and be a step back. MM banks I understand can place you with ease into very small PE firms, but I hear from some bankers that unless it is a very sold MM fund the hours will tend to be shit and the pay will be little more than corp dev (could someone please confirm this?).

I am not opposed to going into banking; I just want to have a set plan that if I was not able to stay forever for whatever reason - I would not be trading a short-term moderate bump in pay for a long-term setback. I want to make sure that even if I did not stay in banking and I burnt out before hours began to throttle back at the VP level that I would still be "trading up" with respect to long-term opportunities. If you were a very well regarded TS professional, what would be your thoughts? Please explain. 

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