M&A vs. Transaction Advisory

Can answer this - I spent a year in Big 4 Valuation within the Transaction Advisory group before moving to lower middle market M&A at an IB.

It is important to set your expectations early. I've noticed that people who go into transaction advisory with the idea that it is similar to, or even in lieu of, IB tend to dislike the work more than those who have no intention of going into IB (myself included).

That being said, it can be interesting work, and is transferable to M&A. When working in IB, you will initiate a transaction (Starting with the pitch, then taking the company to market, due diligence, then closing). Once the deal has been closed, your job as a banker ends.

This is often where valuation and transaction advisory work begins. In valuation, I valued a lot of financial instruments that were exchanged during, or resulted from, the transaction (Equity interests, debt, options, warrants, goodwill, etc). However, this work is often done for financial/ regulatory/ tax reporting compliance purposes, which can be dull. Very seldom did I actually Interact with the IB or PE firms involved in a deal.

This might be different for other areas of Transaction Advisory, though I am less familiar of their roles. For example, accountants working in Due Diligence often work directly alongside IB & PE during a transaction to put together QoE reports, which are often instrumental in a deal.