What would you choose, bearing in mind that I would probably be keen to come back to my home country at some point in my life (probably between 2-4 years at max)?
Is London experience a must to open the most doors, even if you're at GS?
How team / industry group dependant is the decision?
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Not enough info. What do you want to do? Be a career banker? Do you want to go to PE/HF? As a general rule, london experience is always better than regional offices: you will end up with broader deal experience, better network, stronger CV etc., but if you want to be in your home country and you’ve got an offer from GS in your home country, I mean, why not?
Not sure about it, I'd like to maintain PE / HF optionality
It's also not for an entry level role, but a lateral al senior analyst / junior associate
Are you 100% sure that you will have the same chance to go to your home country later on? Based on my experience, most internal movements happen at Sr An / Jr Ass level. I’d go for MS/JPM tho, brand is marginally worse (almost no difference) vs. GS, but you’d be in london which is way way better than a local office.
I would pick GS and then do a rotation in LDN. You keep the optionality with the upside of the GS brand.
Plus a lot of people nowadays move from BB regional offices to LDN PE for example (but bear in mind that on the ground presence in LDN will always be an edge for recruitment)
Also depends on the country you're referring to. It's not the same if the regional office is in Paris/Frankfurt vs. Budapest. Either way, I'd start with London. GS/MS/JPM are literally all the same when it comes to exit so location is more important
It's neither Frankfurt / Paris nor a super marginal office. It's among Nordics / Southern Europe
GS regional office is a strong pick, but there will be one drawback (also a benefit); because you are not in London, you will be a bit further away from the 'action' and recruiting for large international PE's located in London will be more difficult. However, the benefit from the regional office is that you will be in your home country (only adds value if you would like this, i.e. see your friends/family more often in the weekends) and exits into local PE's or satellite offices from international PE's remain good. As mentioned before, a rotation in LDN after a few years is also a possibility. Would choose JPM over MS in most of the cases, and would say a strong group at JPM is on par compared to a regional GS spot.
Why would you choose JPM over MS in London? MS has the far stronger M&A franchise.
JPM is stronger: bigger name, better brand. Many top groups. Not necessarily true for MS. V few groups are top of the street, and I really feel JPM brand (and exits) better.
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