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COL- Boston honestly not that much different than NY- cheaper but still expensive. Chicago is much less expensive and $1000 can get you a pretty solid studio/1 br place.
Salaries- Depends, but usually about the same or a small amount lower. The boutiques in Chicago (RWB, William Blair, Lincoln) all will pay analysts in the 110-130k all in range, which is probably around the median at BBs, so overall not much of a difference.
Exit Opps will be regional- work in a bank in Boston/Chicago and then go to a PE firm in those cities- the firms tend to be smaller (though obviously not always the case). The real difference I would say is that working at a bank in these cities generally seems to limit your exit opportunities to opportunities within these cities- with NY you have a bit more flexibility as to where you work afterwards, since the NY names are more brand names typically.
All of this stuff is through pretty limited knowledge/data points, so take it with a grain of salt. There will be exceptions for everything.
Not sure about IB specifically but most of the larger and more well-known companies have operations that are city specific. For example I know that the firms I will be interning with has most of it's mutual fund/AM operations at the Boston office, Banking & Capital Markets in the NYC office, and manufacturing in it's Chicago office. So, in terms of exit opps, you wont be limited to these cities. However, because you were probably dealing in the office's target industry, you will be more qualified for other positions in this same location.
I can talk about Boston specifically.
COL is on par with New York for all the desirable areas to live.
Exit Ops are regional for most shops (can be more broad based on shop's prominence) and pay is on par with NYC
The two above posts are pretty accurate with regard to Chicago (can't speak about Boston). One thing regarding exit opportunities I'd like to note is that it's very firm dependent, probably more so than NYC. If Chicago is a stronger office for your bank, then you most likely won't be regionally restricted (although perhaps still more restricted regionally relative to NYC).
COL is far lower; most of the other guys in my office pay less than $1200-$1300 for pretty nice apartments. A couple pay less than $1000, but live either farther from the office (Lincoln Park/Wrigleyville) or really close to the office (in the Loop, which is dead at night). Best areas to live seem to be either River North (expensive), Gold Coast (a little less expensive than River North), or East Loop, in terms of compromise between proximity to your office, nightlife, and average rent.
For the millionth time - If you're under 25, live in Lakeview, Lincoln Park, Wicker Park and don't pay more than $800 a person.
thanks to all of you. so let me sum up to make sure I understood you correctly (and please correct me if i am wrong): - leaving expenses in boston lower than in nyc but still expensive. in chicago definitely lower, about 1,000 dollars plus for a studio, maybe a little more if better location - salary maybe a little lower, but not significantly. at some firms maybe even the same on average - exit ops unfortunately regionally restricted in most but not all cases.
That's pretty much sums it up. Do you have a specific industry you are particularly interested in working in? If so that could definitely factor into which location you may want to look into.
I am also interested in this (esp regarding Boston). Is Boston very industry specific? I've heard that they have a lot of healthcare related advisory firms and groups and am wondering if they have any other sector specific groups/ firms?
Thanks
That's a good start. Chicago has a much larger MM influence b/c of the amount of smaller businesses in the Upper Midwest.
Hours tend to be lighted in Chicago than NYC, though it does depend. Most of the IB guys I know in Chicago are working more like 80 hours/week, rather than 100. And the Ivy League degree isn't quite as important. I'm not saying it doesn't help, but there are plenty of Big 10 schools that place into Chicago IB (IU, Iowa, Michigan, UW, OSU, etc.), so you get a bit more diversity IMO. Still plenty of Northwestern, Ivy and U of Chicago guys.
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