LMM ECM to LMM M&A

I have an offer to go from my current ECM Associate role at a LMM bank to M&A Associate at another LMM bank. It's a lateral move and compensation is about 10% higher in M&A group. This feels like a no-brainer but feel like I'm jumping into the unknown here and overthinking the transition. 

Any thoughts would be helpful!

6 Comments
 

I'd start with this, I don't know what your average work week is rn in ECM but expect that 10% more comp to also come with more hours. With that said the switch is really up to you. There are obviously some transferable skills from capital markets to M&A but overall you're going to need to learn a lot. Capital markets is also arguably the better the long term career choice as you won't get burnt out as easily as M&A, but if you want to go to LMM PE then the switch to M&A would be very good for you. 

After all that word vomit, it really just depends on what you wanna do. 

 

Thanks - this is really helpful. To give some more context, I probably work 60-70 hours a week now. Given I know a few associates at the new place, they said that's probably about the same as I should expect; however, I would expect to work more over the initial months as I ramp up. Also the 10% increase is on the lower end if bonus is absolute shit. More realistically, the comp is probably 20-35% more at the M&A LMM bank. The M&A route seems like a good opportunity because I can stay and move up the ranks if it's a good fit, but it gives me the necessary skills to move to PE if I want to go that route also. 

 
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