Interested in everyone's thoughts on these three options. People/Culture is a wash, as I like the folks at all three.
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what do you want to do long term? In any case I would go with BX under all scenarios.
Do not see myself as a career banker. Strong interest in being an investor. The plan is to jump to the buy-side after the analyst program.
If you actually have offers at these and this is your mentality then it is a very easy decision. The buyside opportunities at BX are significantly better than at any of the others. Particularly for HF recruiting if that is your goal.
BX places best of all the shops you have offers from. Given your desire to recruit for PE/HF I would go with BX. I think this is a pretty obvious choice.
People will come in here and beat the BX drum as usual due to it being a PE powerhouse. Take a look at their list of Advisory transactions on the otherhand, not all that strong. Since the start of the year BX Advisory has only been completed 4 transactions which are over $1 billion in value. If you want a boutique personally I'd take Perella / Centreview over it, especially if it was Centreview. They've been involved in many of the biggest deals / attempted deals this year and pay top dollar to their analysts.
I will say this 100x: DEAL FLOW IS NOT IMPORTANT. Sure, having Verizon/Vodafone on your resume is nice, but it's nice in the way having a 2300+ on your SAT is nice (although the latter probably matters more than your deal experience for HF recruiting). Your firm/group comes first, then your school/GPA, then your headhunter presentation skills, when it comes to getting interviews. Those are really the 3 main factors. Look at where BX analysts have gone (overwhelmingly top PE and HF) vs the other firms (good shops in the mix too, but not nearly as consistent especially to top HFs).
When was your first round and superday?
I was at one of the BB's you listed and hands down you need to take BX.
I doubt any Certified User is going to tell you different.
I think Centerview could be bad advice due to your desire to jump ship after a couple of years, especially given Centerview's reputation for wanting long-term bankers etc. I'd say BX hands down - I don't have any experience with it personally but have only read/heard about the great (relative) culture, work/life balance, and exit ops. Even if they have had a relatively slow year (as mentioned above) that's not going to mean your experience will be bad or that you will have worse exit ops....people on here are pretty short-term in their thinking sometimes (no offence intended). If you know leaving Centerview will be easy enough for great exit ops, I'd consider that too - but I don't think you could go wrong with BX. For example, if you can pick between BX and Centerview and exit ops are similar, but BX will help place you on the buy-side/you can be open about your goals nearer recruiting time, vs. Centerview may make it difficult for you/frown upon it (not saying they do, just hypothetical), the extra hassle is probably not worth it.
Tl;dr: BX.
Follow-Up question to a lot of these points: As an analyst, and in the context of buy-side opportunities, does deal flow/deal experience actually matter? Whether you're closing huge deals or just spinning your wheels multi-million projects, the skills you develop are essentially the same...no?
yes they are but it obviously sells itself better if you worked on some massive headline deals. At the end of the day however no matter what you have worked on your are expected to know it inside out, understand the terms, valuation, financials etc. so what you brush up at home and present is what matters the most at the end of the day. Purely for buyside I would def go to BX, nobody cares about league tables, let alone on the buyside. Its the same groups and places that usually get awarded the spots based on past experience with the guys there, their intellect and ability to deliver what you know and how you add value to the team etc.
from talking to friends, BX will give you the best combination of exits+wl balance on the street.
I'd take BX as well. Good luck with your decision.
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