No-name Corp fin advisory boutique vs Top BB in Operations
Hi monkeys, what would you pick between a SA no-name Zurich boutique corporate finance advisory (advising on exit strategies, turnarounds, M&A etc) and SA at a top 3 BB but in Ops?
Pros of the no-name:
- You work in Corp finance, so what you learn is related to IB and scalable to AM for example
- Small place (20 people I think) so you ideally work directly with seniors and can meet seniors of the companies you advise, who worked there as SA told me they had the chance to participate in a couple of meetings with CEOs and seniors (we are not talking about Bezos stuff of course, they likely advise SMEs but still an opportunity for me to grow).
Cons:
- The name means absolutely nothing, I'm wondering whether recruiters put a lot of emphasis on that.
- Likely very small deals
Pros of the big name:
- Very big name on the CV
- It is still just a SA so IDEALLY after the SA I would be able to get in contact with the hr of AM/IB and I would have the "advantage" of having already worked with the company (but yeah, I am perfectly aware that this is unlikely to happen)
Cons:
- Well, Ops is totally unrelated to any front-office job
I'm deep in the recruiting process right now, I got an AC and some 1st and 2nd interviews from next week on so I might have other opportunities (hopefully), but as of today I have these 2 offers, what would you do if they would be the only two you can choose from?
(if you are wondering why I applied for Ops among the other FO roles it was for a diversification logic, I dropped one Ops application so that if I fail to get anything at all I would still have something next Summer instead of having no SA on the CV).
Thanks for any reply monkeys
