Investment Banking Group Selection Criteria

For IBs where group placement runs its own process after you get an offer, what's the best way to go about selecting a group? Between industry fit/interest, group culture, and exit opps/group prestige, how would you rank these in order of importance?

For example, if you have a strong industry interest in Group A, which is a "mid-tier" group at a bank (places decently well into MFs/UMM, but not crazy, out-of-the-park exits), vs. Group B, which is the top group at the bank but one where you have little industry interest (consistent MF/UMM exits but pigeonholed into that industry), how would you choose?

Also, a lot of information on this site seems to be outdated. League tables change all the time, and there are many instances where a bank that might not have been doing so well in a particular industry in 2017 has now leapt to the top 5 in league tables in 2021 or 2022. Yet, the reputations of these groups tend to lag a little bit on this site. How much stock should I place in what I see on this website/general reputation vs. the most recent data on League Tables? Do exit opps follow the constantly updating performance of banks in different industries, or are they based on reputation? If a particular group isn't known to be the best but has been crushing it recently, do MF/UMM headhunters take this into account when PE recruiting comes around and adjust accordingly, or is it all just based on "reputation" which might not have actually caught up to reality?

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