Exploding Offer - CS (Tech) NY vs. Harris Williams (Generalist) VA

Have to go Harris. Will save you two years of constant anxiety. 

Would personally choose HW. Will get more live deal experience, higher comp, better QOL, and 90% less like to be laid off. CS is an absolute mess right now. There's no guarantee that things will be better there in 2 years and there is a strong likelihood return offers for SASOs will be historically low leaving you to recruit in a brutal FT environment.

Go with HW as an associate. If you were an undergrad set on PE in NYC the answer might be different.

Like others who have responded so far have alluded to, a bit more color on your career goals are needed here for more refined advice.  But like others, unless you have a specific reason to be NYC or bust, I would also lean towards HW and Richmond.

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You should go with HW and leverage for something full time if your goal has anything to do with working at corp dev / strategy at large cap tech.

HW is a great bank but it is largely a middle market sponsor to sponsor shop. You won't have exposure to public company m&a.

You will be missing alot of reps on complex public to public transactions and understanding how large cap corporate think about M&A.
 

Buffett famously acquires companies with limited due diligence with publicly available information only and that is actually how alot of large cap corporate conduct M&A as well. Although they spend months / years studying their targets from the outside in. That skill set is something alot of large cap tech corp dev look for when hiring ex. bankers.

To me it's what market do you want to be in. If NY, do CS and shop offer around for full-time. Network after your summer. I'm the interim, keep the HW relation warm. If you don't care about that and want the suburban lifestyle, consider HW. Apples and oranges

I would go to HW. Lateral is an option at some point if you need NYC, a more prestigious platform (although HW is really well respected in that space from what I've gathered), and exits more likely to better brand names if that stuff is important. Caveat being who knows what CS's exits will be in two years. And as others have mentioned it sounds like a mess right now, so your learning experience will definitely suffer, you'll have to worry about being laid off the whole time in addition to standard banking stress, which sounds awful honestly. Even when things were going well always kind of had that feeling in back of mind that could be laid off, which apparently is common to instill in juniors, but wouldn't want to be somewhere where those fears could actually be substantiated, makes everything even worse. 

Just going to add on. I would be skeptical of what the senior bankers say. They might not even be at the platform by the time you roll around. They will say whatever they need to to check the recruiting responsibilities box, but come on. I think CS is on round whatever of "one and done restructuring layoffs." Plus, even if they mean it, these guys don't have a crystal ball. They have no idea what the group's business will look like in a few years. Hard enough to predict in normal conditions, let alone the market we're in plus CS undergoing a transformation and turmoil. 

Would take CS here

CS

Del

Hahah I like this whole deliberation. Pretty much comes down to risk aversion but seems that the route you're picking is safety and less optionality… I have spent time in Richmond and honestly think it's a neat place. But keep this decision for what you want your life to be at and outside the office. What type of people you will be surrounded and connections you will make. If Richmond is a long term destination - it would make sense. Otherwise seems like you'd be cutting down your optionality.

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Plus how prestigious is CS going to be in a few years? Marginally more so than HW? Is that worth the stress? 

Real upside seems to come from being in NY. Career wise idk how much of a difference that is. can't answer how important it is from lifestyle standpoint

i had to choose between DB and another bank a few years back. All the senior bankers made all the assurances in the world - 1 year later entire groups dissolved and return offers rescinded. 
 

im glad I listened to my gut and went to a different shop.