Genuinely curious what people on here think, as I've not seen it discussed before. If you were to have two offers: one in a satellite office of an extremely well-regarded BB/EB or PE/HF shop, and another in a city like NY/SF/Chicago but for a less well-regarded firm, which would you take and why? Assuming that you'd be indifferent about compensation or distance from family and friends.
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Self-explanatory answer if you include the last part, definitely the satellite office imo. Really depends how much of a disparity there is in the offer qualities though.
Interesting. What if the scenario was that there was a large discrepancy in offer quality, but you also had no interest in being in the satellite city and would much rather be in a major city for the bulk of your career (so you're not longer neutral to comp or distance).
Flexibility of job continuation - possible 1-2yr gig and move into the core city offices. If there is no interest though, I would personally think twice - there is nothing like being in a major hub like NYC. On top of that, you could also shop around after some time at the "lower" firm as well, and leverage your experience to get into a solid firm later on.
Fair point, there's a lot of firms today emphasizing internal mobility. That is, provided you show the interest and can perform.
That being said, a year of experience is a longer time than you'd think. I spent a summer in NYC that seemed like forever - can't imagine being in a place solo without my friends and family. If it was SF / BOS maybe even Houston I'd be able to manage, but other than that, I would definitely go with the latter personally.
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