PJT RSSG vs. Evercore M&A
I've been fortunate enough to get offers from both of these firms for SA 2021. Currently, I'm leaning towards PJT RSSG due to reputation and exits, but my concern is that restructuring might pigeonhole me. Additionally, to what extent do restructuring analysts gain m&a skills and how much of the job consists of looking through credit docs vs. actually building out modeling skills?
On the Evercore side, while I think it's a great firm my concern is that if we are still in a recession come Summer 2021 the return rate might not be quite as high. Also, is the exit differential between a group like Evercore M&A that great relative to PJT RSSG?
Need to make a decision within the next two weeks. Would appreciate any and all opinions!
PJT RSSG is the best banking job period in terms of any objective metric you could ask for. Would be silly to let that offer go. You could always recruit into vanilla buyout PE from PJT RSSG if you really wanted to.
Compensation, prestige, perks and benefits, exits. I've also heard culture is great.
Uhh.. evercore rx is elite but you’re delusional to argue that pjt rx is not > evr rx in terms of exits
Baupost, king street, apollo PE and centerbridge to name a few? Evercore rx hasn’t placed an analyst into a single one of these (correct me if im wrong here but they only placed into apollo credit before)
The original comment is accurate, pjt rx is literally the top sell-side group on the street with exits even better than gs tmt/fig and ms m&a
You're just naming a few of the buyside firms you know. No one has gone to King St in recent years, because the firm has struggled. Both place into Apollo (including the buyout fund). Both have placed into Oaktree, York (what's left of it), and various other funds. PJT has sent 1 to Baupost from the past three classes (and it's always a Harvard kid going back the past decade), and a handful to CB. EVR has sent ppl to DK, Stone Hill and Taconic. Maybe RSSG exits are slightly better, but it's all very comparable.
If you want to exit to PE then PJT is the way to go. PE placement is one of their explicit selling points and they basically give analysts the week off the focus on interviews.
The consensus is clear here. PJT RSSG will give you the absolute best distressed/event/activity/ even equity hedge fund and PE opps aside from maybe like traditional large cap buyout funds focused on a specific industry. better exits than GS TMT, MS M&A, anything. If you really want to do TMT long/short at Citadel then yeah maybe choose GS TMT but for everything else the choice is clear.
RX at PJT will give you more analytical and useful skills than any M&A group. they do almost all debtor side -> so you’re focused on digging deep into the company and the negotiations and even the operational turnaround strategy aspects. in M&A honestly all you do is a crap ton of accretion/dilution, dataroom bullshit and making your sales-y management pres. You get the same amount of granular company analysis if not more in RX and you have to think more like an investor.
Years ago, I took a M&A offer over PJT RX. At the time, I wanted to work in PE, not a distressed HF, and I didn’t want to do the legal and credit documentation work that comes with restructuring.
I was wrong about the exits. The PJT RX analysts go on to be PE associates at Apollo, Blackstone, H&F, Berkshire, etc. Top tier HFs on both equity and debt side. No other banking group has such consistently strong and diverse buyside exit opps.
I was right about the work. I would’ve hated wading through all that hairy debt analysis. M&A and RX are fundamentally very different jobs.
Ended up at a big PE shop either way so am happy with my decision.
First to clear up some misinformation -- PJT has tracked every analyst exit since the spinoff -- placement is lights out, and objectively the best of any group on wall street. Proof? Here are their analyst placements for the 2020 exiting class:
Blacksone PE, KKR Special Sits, Apollo PE, Centerbridge (x2), Oaktree, Anchorage, Blackstone GSO.
That's it. That's the whole class. Not a single analyst headed to a mm shop. That said, it is undeniable that you have landed the only other peer EB offer there is which is Evercore M&A. Like others have mentioned, your most important question now should be what you want to do after your two years as an analyst. Seems stupid to ask before you even take a summer offer as a sophomore, but is really important for this decision. Thinking about growth equity or VC? Take the M&A offer. Want to do distressed? Rx hands down. Thinking about going A2A? Can't do that at PJT. Want a small analyst class? Out of luck at Evercore. Don't mind comments talking about the "current environment" or job security. You will have a good summer and a full time offer waiting for you after it at both of these shops. Over the course of your analyst career at either of these groups, you will pitch, and you will do live deal work. I guarantee it. You will get worked hard. I guarantee it. Don't make this decision based on a market cycle; this is the platform on which you will launch your career. The core question here has nothing to do with evercore or pjt -- it should entirely be a question of M&A or Rx and you have (arguably) the best offer for each-- talk to seniors, talk to people in these groups, and figure out where your preference lies and take your offer with 100% conviction -- there are no bad decisions here. Congrats!
I think you largely make good points, but I would raise that the 2020 exits for PJT RSSG, aside from obviously Apollo and BX PE, are deceivingly mediocre. MF Credit gigs are not all that coveted by most banking analysts (KKR Special Sits and BX GSO). Oaktree has seen a lot of people looking to jump ship after the Brookfield acquisition. Centerbridge has been struggling with some of their PortCos even pre-COVID (PF Chang, IPC, etc...). I think Anchorage has also been struggling the last couple of years.