Morgan Stanley Generalist vs Blackstone M&A

BX will be better for both of those choices. MS would only be better if you were looking at F500 positions, or considering staying in banking long term.

I would go with Morgan Stanley for the bigger brand name. You'd be surprised at how much brand matters.

BX M&A guaranteed exit opps to mega-cap PE/HF after 2 years very transparent recruiting process for exit opps into buyside

Just to save you time, everyone here will say BX M&A. I would go with them.

BX. Get ready to work.

Both have top exits - BX will work you more.

killscallion By the way, just to put it in perspective, I'd say probably 80% of the kids invited to PE recruiting cocktail events are from MS or GS.

Wow. Just... wow.

You don't need to have a statistics PhD to understand that you're naturally going to have significantly more representation from firms with anywhere from 30,000 to 50,000+ employees. Blackstone is a little over 1000 worldwide.

Let's break it down this way. BX M&A in New York has maybe 10 analysts per year, max. What % of those analysts are represented at cocktail events (or at least got invited)? I'd be you something close to 100%.

killscallion No, that is not what I said. Blackstone's strong wso/">suit is obviously PE, but would they even know Blackstone has a competent M&A advisory practice?

Ummm... yes? What kind of question is this? Why else would kids from the program be going to megacap PE or top HF? First of all, the Street is pretty small, and second of all, people in hiring positions on the buyside are entry-level monkeys getting their primary info from online forums. They have something called industry experience that kind of compensates.

Man, sometimes the level of logical reasoning (or lack thereof) simply astounds me.

Obviously both MS and BX have great franchises. Obviously both have great exit opps. But back to the OP, I'd say go with whatever culture you feel more at home at. I think for many, especially in today's environment, it'd be at a boutique firm. But maybe big firms are your thing.

Gotta agree with the above.

I have no idea what kind of chip killscallion has on his shoulder, but making blanket generalizations like "PE headhunters will still hold MS investment banking experience in higher regard and will give you the time of the day more" just shows you somebody who's trying to overcompensate.

Breaking news!!! Both places will be highly respected by recruiters!

Haha, it's futile arguing with somebody like you, so I'm not even going to try.

Looky here--it doesn't matter what your opinion is, nor mine for that matter, when it comes to reputation. The exit opps for each of these places speak for themselves. Period.

You do realize BX started as an advisory practice, right?

And the below is clearly revisionist history:

killscallionYou are missing my point. I was simply trying to demonstrate that MS is extremely well-represented and highly sought after during PE recruiting.

Unless we ignore what you said only a few posts above:

killscallionPE headhunters will still hold MS investment banking experience in higher regard and will give you the time of the day more. Senior professionals at PE firms, especially those who don't keep up with what's going on in the investment banking industry, will also recognize MS more.

I really have a hard time picturing someone in PE refusing to "give (a BX M&A Analyst) the time of day."

1) You incorrectly assumed every word in every one of my posts was to demonstrate that MS is extremely well-represented and highly sought after during PE recruiting, when it specifically referred to the single sentence about cocktails.

2) I did not say someone in PE will "refuse" to "give (a BX M&A Analyst) the time of day". Please point out where that was stated.

This is turning into an argument about semantics, but you are making incorrect assumptions about (or purposefully exaggerating) my various points.

If you wish, for example, to argue that a recruiter will MORESO give the time of the day to a BX M&A analyst over a MS analyst, then say it, and I'll stick to my belief to the contrary.

At the end of the day, I was simply offering my opinion about reputation. Take it or leave it.

both have great exit opps

however, BX has 6-8 analysts in M&A every year. every single analyst places well

MS will have 60+ if not many more incoming analysts into its coverage groups... not every one of these analysts will place well... and not every analyst in MS M&A will place well either

BX M&A is not THAT good. I would choose Greenhill, Evercore, and Moelis over it. It has it's prestige from the Blackstone name but the real deals are BX PE, restructuring and GSO.

I would also take MS and GS over BX M&A. They have a name that extends beyond finance and a much broader alumni base. Honestly, from what I've heard from those working at BX PE, they usually doesn't take more than 1 BX M&A analyst if that. That alone should tell you something.