15 Comments
 

Just an intern, but I have spoken with a couple guys in PE in Chicago (not just guys from my firm), and they all say Blair is king or at the very least top 2. Their offices are gorgeous, and the people there are very happy from what I gather. Blair's presence couldn't be stronger in Chicago. Great culture, strong loyalty, fantastic exit ops. Hope this helps!

 

I would lean towards Jeffries because their SF tech office is very strong and TMT Banking is obviously on fire right now. Jeffries is also a really cool place with some super nice and down to earth guys, at least in NYC. Citi would normally be a more versatile choice but their tech coverage team is pretty dismal and their tech deal flow is bad. Jeffries will have better deal flow and probably with a leaner team to boot. I know nothing about William Blair or the Chicago scene but Chicago is a much worse city for IB and IB exits in general, and William Blair isn’t a terribly well known firm (again, at least from my NYC BB perspective). Hope this helps but all good options, congrats!

 

I would agree with most of this but am a little more optimistic about William Blair and the exit opps there. Their rep has grown tremendously over the past few years and they are starting to place their Analysts at top PE firms. Maybe not many MF's, but solid firms nonetheless. Not to mention Chicago is a fantastic city and has a much better CoL than SF.

That being said, I still think Jefferies in SF would be option 1A considering you'll be in the tech sector. If for some reason you had a stronger relationship with guys at WB over Jefferies, I think you could easily make the case for choosing WB. But all else equal, I would go Jefferies.

 

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