Leveraged finance vs restructuring analyst programme?

Hi all,

I’m a final year master’s student based in Europe who’s just received a return offer for a European BB Lev Fin group. I like the space a lot, and really like my team and think this would be a good place to begin a career. The catch is that I feel quite strongly that I want to look at distressed situations (either sellside RX or investing) at some point in future, partly because the situations look more interesting on a deal-to-deal basis, and because I want to develop a comprehensive understanding of capital structure beyond the context of an LBO. My prospective firm doesn’t have a RX offering in Europe so there’s no scope to move internally. My current thinking is to complete at least my analyst stint and then lateral as an associate into RX, then go from there- a move which has happened at similar firms and my own. That way I could get familiarity with the docs in Lev Fin and docs from the RX side.

I feel that my current understanding is quite limited so I felt you could help with some questions before I make my decision.

My questions are as follows: -can I really learn more about loan documentation and cap structure from an RX role- or is it of equal value to Lev Fin? -What are the differences between working in Lev Fin vs RX? From a technical point of view -In Europe- what will the climate for both lev Fin and RX be over the next 3-5 years? How will relative headcount change between those two groups? -Is there a clear pathway from Lev Fin to a distressed shop in Europe? Or would prestige of the firm matter more than the group (judging from some of the profiles I’ve seen) -Would it be better to cut my teeth in my current group and lateral into RX (rather than shopping my offer elsewhere that does RX) if my ultimate end-goal is to invest?

Any help would be much appreciated.