LevFin Lower BB versus IB small shop

Hi all,

I have a dilemma - I am fortunate enough to be in the position of having several offers after a few tough application seasons of getting nothing. I have an offer from a European bank to do LevFin and an offer to do IB at a small shop.

I am thinking about taking the larger shop as I think an actual development scheme and name will help me more in the long run, however, the small shop compensation is almost double that of the levfin role and maybe operates in a more 'sexy' industry.

What are you thoughts?

 

The small shop is almost double that of the lower BB? That's crazy, how can that be?

You're definitely in a tough spot..how did the small shop seem? Do the founders/principals have solid backgrounds?

Edit: and just for clarification, when you say European bank, do you mean the bank is headquartered there, or the role is there?

 

I know its crazy! its more that the larger shop is less than the average salary than the other way round.

The smaller shop seems really cool with the people I have interviewed with, but like I said its quite small so in terms of diversity its quite limited. The founder comes from a very large bank and has extremely solid credentials. My main reason for going for the larger shop is that the training will be better e.g. an actual graduate scheme and not expected to go into it knowing everything straight away.

PS the bank is headquartered there.

 

Unless the lev fin has extremely bad culture / deal flow, I'd go with them - the brand will open a lot of doors and comp in the first few years of work hardly matters.

On a separate note, can anyone share which are the most active European banks in lev fin these days? And which European banks have principal finance teams?

 

LevFin at Euro BBs (with the exception of UBS maybe) does all modeling in-house, so exits are just as good as from a coverage group. I'd take BarCap / CS (LFO&R, not LevFin Cap Markets) / DB (still one of the top LevFin players globally) all over the small shop - unless we're talking about a Qatalyst or LionTree type place here, then it really comes down to if you like the industry / culture.

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