PJT M&A Group Selection 2026

Throwaway for obvious reasons.

Just wrapped up my 2 years in PJT M&A in NY and starting at a fund in few weeks. I know pod selection is coming up for the new class and I remember how useless the official info was when I went through it, so figured I'd write the post I wish existed 2 years ago. 

First, understand the pod structure, because this is the actual game

Analysts and associates don't get placed into groups, you get placed into PODS, and each pod is a bundle of groups:

MCO = MediaComms, Consumer, Oil & Gas
HFT = Healthcare, FIG, Tech
IRP = Industrials, REGL, Power

So you're not really ranking groups, you're ranking pods, and your staffing within the pod is not guaranteed. Which means the real question isn't "what's the best group," it's "what's the best group I can get AND what's my downside if I don't get it" Some pods have a great ceiling and a brutal floor

Second, the one pattern that explains basically everything

The OG PJT groups, the ones built by the original ~2015-2017 partners, are execution shops. Live deals, real technical work, and culture that's held up because the same people have run them for a decade and the mid levels came up through the system. The groups that got built out later through BB lateral hiring imported BB habits with them, which means throwing spaghetti at the wall with aimless pitch books, 60 page decks for clients who were never going to transact, and mid levels who treat juniors the way they got treated at their old shop. Once you see this pattern you can rank the groups yourself. OG franchise = good seat. Lateral buildout = pitching machine until proven otherwise

Cheat code: pull up the marquee deals page from PJT's investor presentation and figure out which group did each logo. Like 3 groups account for most of that page, and surprise, they're the OG ones

Standard disclaimer, this is my experience + what I heard from kids above me. Get coffee with 2nd years

TIER 1

REGL (in IRP)

Sneaky the best seat in the building right now. They're sole advisor to Caesars on the Fertitta take-private, ~$18bn, literally the biggest casino deal ever. 
Not a one hit wonder either, this is the same franchise that did Caesars/Eldorado back in 2020 and sold the Bellagio for MGM

Textbook OG group. Almost entirely homegrown at the MD/D/VP/Aso level, basically no laterals, people don't leave, which tells you everything about how it's run. Senior partners are original PJT from ~2017 so they've been originating on this platform forever, no "trust me the deals are coming" energy. Junior work is real, you'll actually touch models on live deals instead of turning page 47 of a pitch for the 9th time

MediaComms (in MCO)

Most of the founding partners came over with Taubman from MS MediaComms and the relationships show. The OG-est of the OG groups. Recent run:

- Comcast Versant spin and then got the repeat call on the new NBCU/Sky separation announced in June.
- Frontier's $20bn sale to Verizon
- Lead advisor to DirecTV on the DISH deal + the TPG stuff
- Omnicom buying IPG

M&A is their specialty and ngl that's the most technical stuff you can do as a junior. Carve-out financials, Form 10s, stranded costs... PE interviewers eat that up. Only thing to know is the pod is kinda split between media and comms coverage, both good but ask which side actually has capacity. Also mostly homegrown, obviously

TIER 1.5

FIG / Fintech (in HFT)*

Fintech has quietly been printing. They advised FIS on that whole Global Payments / Worldpay triangle (FIS bought the Issuer Solutions business for $13.5bn and sold their Worldpay stake at the same time, closed in Jan). Genuinely complicated deal, the kind you learn from. Also did Kraken buying NinjaTrader on the crypto side, and the franchise has Discover/CapOne on the resume. Every junior I know in fintech actually liked their life, which is rare. Good flow AND good culture

The asterisk: there's an insurance vertical that has its own associates but staffs analysts out of the same pool. So you can rank "fintech" and wake up doing insurance. Not the end of the world but ask exactly how analyst allocation works before you rank it

TIER 2 (coin tosses)

Industrials (in IRP)

Most interesting bet on the board, and exhibit A of the lateral buildout playbook. Real anchor client to be fair: PJT was lead advisor to Boeing on buying back Spirit AeroSystems, $8bn+, messy, high profile, real deal. But heads up, the GE and 3M stuff they'll flex in recruiting predates the current group and was done by other people. Ask who actually executed those

The group has like 2-3x'd in size the last couple years off lateral hiring, Citi's co-head of NA industrials came over as partner, one of GS's European industrials heads, some BofA guys. Thing about lateral partners at boutiques is it takes 2-3 years for even the good ones to move their relationships over, and until then everyone pitches. And they pitch the BB way, spaghetti at the wall, books for companies that were never transacting. It gets sweaty. Also a few MDs have already dipped, which mid-buildout is not a great look

If the bet hits you're early to a real franchise. If it doesn't you made decks for 2 years. Genuine coin toss

Tech (in HFT)

The actual franchise is in SF (semis mostly) and they've landed some legit seniors out there recently. NY tech is thin to nonexistent and half of it overlaps with MediaComms anyway. SF seniors do pull NY juniors onto deals, so the staffings can be good, you'll just be on west coast hours with a team you've never met in person

Power (in IRP)

Historically sweaty with mid flow and mid levels and Asos are almost all laterals. Ask yourself why none of the homegrown people stayed. That's the whole review

TIER 3

Healthcare (in HFT)

This WAS an elite OG seat, the founding healthcare partner ran one of the best biopharma practices on the street (Amgen/Horizon at ~$28bn, CSL/Vifor, Mylan/Upjohn). He left end of 2024 to go be co-president of Leerink. Per the classes behind me it's now mostly BD with a bunch of new lateral seniors trying to rebuild, aka the spaghetti phase. Maybe it comes back but that's not a bet I'd make with my 2 years

Consumer (in MCO)

Yes they're on Kimberly-Clark/Kenvue, ~$49bn, huge print. But everyone inside knows that relationship sits with the very top of the house, not the group's own seniors. When the founder brings the deal in, the group gets to execute it, great for the tombstone slide, changes nothing about your Tuesday night. Day to day it's a BD sweatshop and the culture under the seniors who came over from JPM has a toxic reputation. Multiple people told me the same thing without me asking. Lateral buildout playbook, worst version

O&G (in MCO)

Doesn't exist in NY, it's all Houston. Cannot tell you a single thing they do. Houston people feel free to chime in

Now the pod math, because this is where people screw up

Since you get placed into a pod, not a group, think about ceiling AND floor:

IRP: ceiling is REGL (elite). Floor is Industrials or Power (sweaty BD). High risk high reward. If you rank IRP, you NEED to network your way into REGL specifically or you're doing industrials pitches for 2 years

MCO: ceiling is MediaComms (elite). Floor is Consumer (rough) since O&G doesn't staff in NY, so realistically it's a 2 horse race. Same logic, MediaComms or bust, and MediaComms is big enough that the odds are decent

HFT: weirdly the safest pod right now. Fintech is the prize, but the floor (healthcare BD, thin NY tech) is more boring than brutal. Lower ceiling than the other two pods, way softer landing

So the actual strategy: figure out which specific group you want, rank its pod, then spend the weeks before selection making sure THAT group knows your name. Ranking a pod for its best group and then getting floored into its worst group is the classic mistake, ask anyone doing industrials BD right now who thought they were getting REGL, before selections, get coffee with a VP or MD in the specific group you want, not just the pod, and make it known. Squeaky wheel works, and it's your only real insurance against the floor scenario