MBB Consulting vs. MM IB (Cowen, Jefferies, WF, WB, HW, etc.) out of undergrad

Hey all.

I'm currently planning on recruiting for IB (I feel like I'll enjoy it a lot more than consulting) but ultimately what I care about is pay and exit opps.

If you guys had say, both a BCG and Wells Fargo offer, which would you pick? Would it depend between the MBB and MM firms respectively (i.e. would you pick Jefferies HC over McKinsey but not Harris Williams?). Curious as to everyone's thoughts on this.

8 Comments
 

Consulting 11 times out of 10 - less pay is only downside in my opinion unless you’re stuck on LMM to middle market PE or a random strategic finance role as an exit. Consulting can easily lead you to PE, M7 MBA, high end strategic finance at a big corporation, and the lifestyle is more desirable. Pay is a little less though probably. 

 

Hey OP,

I'm going to one of those banks for M&A full-time and would pick MBB for the better investing exit ops and odds at getting into an M7 business school

 

I'm at a semi-target and am going into M&A at one of the banks you mentioned (don't want to get more specific). I think I didn't get FT MBB interviews in spite of networking because of how investing-centric my background was versus some of my peers who did consulting their junior summer and then recruited for MBB FT. With that said, I seriously got shafted because I saw people from my school go from corporate finance jr summer to MBB full time in prior years, and I had a plethora of more favored experience.

While I prefer banking to consulting, I would seriously consider lateral MBB recruiting in addition to lateral IB recruiting to a BB/EB as soon as possible. Hope this helps!

 

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