mid tier bb's and eb comparison

I personally would rather work for BAML/Citi than Guggenheim (still a good shop tho)/Greenhill (hear they aren't doing too great). Places like Evercore and Centerview are in a league of their own. The other boutiques you listed are great as well but the two I mentioned have been gas lately, especially Centerview. Healthcare is fuckin boolin

I would personally take PJT/EVR/CVP/Laz over Citi/BAML/Barclays/CS over MOE, GHL, PWP, Gugg.

Evr Pjt Laz Moe Cvp Pwp > BofA >> Citi > Barclays CS > Gug Ghl

Question from somebody at a "standard" EB. I never really understood how Guggenheim gets grouped in with Greenhill? When you look at their deals over the past 2-3 years...Guggenheim has done unbelievably better than Greenhill. Is Greenhill only mentioned in this EB discussion because of what it used to be?

Some people on here will say "smaller class sizes." But on a class size bases shouldnt we include the M Klein and Liontrees of the world? Doesnt really make sense to me

Forget mid tier lol at top targets lots of people take good EB offers over any bulge bracket including GS/MS/JPM. PJT Restructuring and Evercore M&A are in a league of their own and are the two best (and most sought after) banking gigs at the analyst level in terms of compensation, responsibility and exposure, and exit opportunities. Next tier is CVP, PJT M&A, Evercore Rx, Moelis, and Lazard -- whether you take these over a top BB is a matter of business model preference, but most would take any of them over a mid tier BB. Another thing to consider is that recruiting timelines for these jobs are super different -- take this cycle for example. PJT RSSG, Evercore, and Moelis are pretty much done recruiting. MS, and Lazard have given out some nondiversity offers, but have reserved spots for the fall. Centerview will only kick off in the fall, while PJT M&A, Goldman, JPM, and most other bulges will start in mid/late summer (and some will roll through the fall). All in all the odds you have overlapping offers is slim, and cross that bridge when you get there instead of starting a dick pulling contest online about a hypothetical scenario that you'll likely never experience.

This is dumb. When considering your bank, you are either prioritizing exit opportunities or you are considering your bank as a potential career, so culture, career progression, and comp will be most important. Honestly, exit opportunities are a lot less about the bank / group and more about the candidate. Yes, a group like CS sponsors or Evercore M&A has had historically good placements and will continue on that path. However, this is less because of the group itself and more about the candidate. At any bulge bracket or leading independent bank, basically all analysts will have the same headhunters reach out to them. Since recruiting happens so early deal experience no longer matters, an individual candidate is far more important than their deal experience, group, or even the school they went to. An impressive candidate from Deutsche could easily get a MegaFund offer over a not so impressive candidate from PJT. However, because leading candidates tend to gravitate towards groups with historically strong exits, they tend to do better (although given the extremely accelerated nature of recruiting, I am convinced that many strong candidates who came to banking late or weren't able to navigate the process well are at so-called weaker banks or groups and there will be an increasing trend to seeing a kid from Guggenheim go to KKR, or UBS to Apollo). If you are prioritizing a career in banking, comp, culture, and career progression are more important, but generally speaking career progression and comp are more determined by an individual (although independent firms pay cash, instead of deferred options. However, EBs haven't really been long enough to see if you can move upward in one).

My personal ranking (I've worked at a top tier EB and BB):

Top Tier (all great places to work): 1. Evercore/PJT RSSG 2. Goldman/JPM/MS 3. Centerview/PJT M&A 4. Lazard/Moelis/BofA 5. Barclays/Citi/PWP/CS

Lower Tier (not anyone's first choice, but still get a decent banking experience.. not going to bother to rank): - UBS/Wells Fargo/DB/Greenhill/RBC/HL/Gugg/Jefferies

Having worked at both an EB and a BB, I think this forum favors EBs. I did a lot of pitching at the EB and have really seen the benefit of having a balance sheet. I think you just get more blue chip experience at BBs at least in my experience and that's what I've wanted. Obviously, depends on your group placement though and these rankings assume you're in preferable BB group i.e. M&A. I think people get caught up in the aura and elitism of the EBs because they're just smaller and there's a lot of mystique around their founders, culture, etc., but I've really liked working at my BB and all the resources the firm has to offer and walking into one of the tallest buildings in NY everyday with our name on the door and our own juice/coffee bar, etc.

1/2) I'll admit I didn't put much thought into my lower tier.. perhaps there are some out there who would chose HL RX or Greenhill/Gugg over Barclays/CS/Citi, but again, in my personal view, which I've qualified by the fact that I lean towards BBs, I'm not choosing f*cking Greenhill over CS. And trust me, I worked at Moelis/Lazard/PWP/PJT and we pitched like crazy for these stupid $250mm sell-sides and our infrastructure was just worse than at a BB. Plus nobody has heard of the firm you work for outside of finance and you're not even really an elite boutique so I believe -> when you're applying for corp dev at Stripe or some startup in two years, Barclays will take you a little farther than Greenhill.

3) In my personal view, you'd be crazy to turn down Evercore or PJT RSSG even for Goldman. First of all the culture at EVR and PJT is known to be exceptional. My friends who work at these places genuinely love it. You're making 50k + more than at Goldman. Exit are better. Culture is better. For me it's an easy choice, but understand some kids will never be able to say no to Goldman.

3) I'll give it to you that exits are probably a wash and dependent on group, but I will say that my gf worked at PJT and the way that headhunters courted her blew my mind.. literally bent over backward to set up one on one coffee chats with principals long before on-cycle ever kicked off. She's at a MF. To you second point re culture, a big thing I was alluding to was openness during recruiting, but beyond that my friends at EVR and PJT were treated pretty well.. obviously, I'll give it to you again, this is totally subjective, but based off of 5-6 touchpoints of analysts who didn't want to kill themselves and... that made an impression on me.

At my target (W), it depends on what you're interested in. Most students going into M&A think of tier 1 as EVR M&A, Moelis LA, Centerview M&A, and PJT M&A. Any nuances between these is a matter of fit/culture. This is followed by Lazard M&A, Moelis NY (also joint restructuring), PWP NY (all great shops). A step down is Rothschild (tier 1 in EMEA), HL, Greenhill, and Guggenheim. If you're RX inclined, PJT RSSG is the top pick, followed by EVR RX, HL RX, Lazard RX (no order). Other RX shops I've seen people go to include Greenhill RX, Ducera, Miller Buckfire, Lincoln. Between BB and EB, it comes down to what environment you're interested in and risk aversion. For summer analysts, I've seen more top students take EVR/MOE LA/CVP/PJT/LAZ over GS/MS because of the uncertainty in group placement at BBs (even at top target, can't confirm you'll be in GS TMT/MS M&A). Any of these shops would be taken over mid-tier BB's, given the unknown placement process. Generally speaking, EB's tend to have the stereotype of having more analysts who have stronger technicals, were leaders in their investment clubs, participated in pitch competitions, and knew they wanted to do finance early on, which many W students are (also expressed in the interview stage - EVR/MOE interviews this year had you do paper LBOs and accretion/dilution math, which is not the norm at BBs). If you look at WITG, considered one of the most prominent finance clubs on campus, a good number of PMs will be represented at EVR/MOE LA/CVP/PJT/LAZ, many of whom could have gotten their choice of BB offers.