MM ECM vs. LMM M&A

All - non-diversity, non-target (Big 10) school - have sent 500+ emails, 100+ networking calls, got one SuperDay that resulted in ECM offer - (Blair, Piper) and have M&A offer at lower MM (Stephens, Key, Truist) - if interested potentially for FT or after 1-2 years in ECM.  Am in process with other firms but feel like the door is closing and need to decide in next week or so.  Am mixed on what to do.  

9 Comments
 

am guessing long term you want m&a so take M&A and then lateral after a year. I'm not at any of those firms but if you look on linkedin there's some people that lateraled from key to jefferies, etc. I know people at my MM that lateraled from LMM after a year. I've also seen people in my network lateral from LMM to EB/BB so really anything's possible.

 

It depends on what you want to do longer-term (or at least in the next few years). Do you want to do M&A and possibly then PE? If that is the case, take the LMM M&A offer and lateral after a year to a better shop to set yourself up for the future. Lateralling is pretty easy these days, especially with how much demand is in the industry (that may change). Also, you have to decide if you like ECM or like M&A better and then factor that into your decision.

As for the processes with other firms, I don't typical suggest rolling the dice on those possibilities but that is a personal choice.

 

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