26 Comments
 

HLHZ. No frickin' doubt!

Next question....

"After you work on Wall Street it’s a choice, would you rather work at McDonalds or on the sell-side? I would choose McDonalds over the sell-side.” - David Tepper
 
westcoasterwhat's not FAS?

Not quite sure what you mean.

FAS is Financial Advisory Services. That group does some small deals, but mostly due diligence and fairness opinions. It doesn't provide the same skill set at M&A or Restructuring. Still has long hours.

It's worth mentioning HLHZ also has the best credit side restructuring group on the street.

 
Best Response
Bernankeywtf is harris williams

They're the guys who rejected your application..

"After you work on Wall Street it’s a choice, would you rather work at McDonalds or on the sell-side? I would choose McDonalds over the sell-side.” - David Tepper
 
Bigtime44As was mentioned, if you want to get into PE, Harris Williams is top notch. Their MDs really go to bat for the analysts. I wish I could say the same for HLHZ

All joking aside, you will 95% get a PE job from HW. Everyone rips on their MD's having better batting averages than handicaps on the links, but it is for good reason. I know one MD who only hits home runs

Flying Higher and Higher
 
TheKingIt depends on where you want to live. If you want to live in NYC, you gotta go with Houlihan. That said, Harris Williams is a PE feeder, if you care about that. You can get into PE out of HL as well (I know people who have, personally.)
If you can't get into PE, at least MM or growth PE, from HL, isn't that saying a lot? I mean, they're a top MM, so that would mean you pretty much have to be in a BB or elite boutique to get into PE?
 
swagon
TheKingIt depends on where you want to live. If you want to live in NYC, you gotta go with Houlihan. That said, Harris Williams is a PE feeder, if you care about that. You can get into PE out of HL as well (I know people who have, personally.)
If you can't get into PE, at least MM or growth PE, from HL, isn't that saying a lot? I mean, they're a top MM, so that would mean you pretty much have to be in a BB or elite boutique to get into PE?

I don't think HL has historically been a huge feeder into PE until fairly recently. You won't get into a huge fund, but sub $1 billion is definitely doable (and really realistic.) Harris Williams could place at bigger shops, but I'm not sure. Either way, it's all the same bullshit anyway.

 

HL has the best restructuring practice, by far. They do some pretty huge deals on that domain. So I think you will have more "prestige" at HL, even if you are doing M&A.

HW barley pitches for M&A, clients come to them for deals. So if you are not into cranking pitchbooks everyday then HW is the place to be.

It would be a tough choice for me if location/group wasn't an issue. But it almost always is, so I'd go with where you want to live, what group you want, and who you got along with the most. Like TheKing said its pretty much the same shit at the end of the day.

 

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