All, WSO has been a great resource for me during my path to break into banking. I wanted to give back by doing a Q&A given that I'm ramping down my current work load since I'm starting in a month. A quick background: I went to a non-target school, went into a non-big 4 firm (Houlihan, A&M, etc.) to do TAS. After 1.5 years, got an offer from a lesser-known MM bank.
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Thanks! I had a 2 internships in accounting-related functions, a high GPA, and good-to-great extracurriculars.
As for Big 4 vs. non Big 4, the big 4 name obviously helps you get your foot in the door better than a non-big 4 shop (although I would argue the difference is small since everyone in IB has heard of Houlihan, Alvarez & Marshall, etc.). The experience I had was much better than Big 4 given the type of projects, responsibility, and types of clients (YMMV).
For outside of IB, the same applies but I'd say Big 4 has better name recognition and would get you in the door over a non-big 4 firm.
In the end, my experience with some high profile public clients were major selling points during my interviews.
PS: when I say non-big 4 firm, I'm talking about the large international financial services firms, not a small 100 man TAS shop.
I was in the valuation part more so than FDD so people knew that I could do valuation but weren't sure if I understood the deal process. I was able to study up on it just enough to talk about it on a high level but obviously don't know the nuances of it. I said that banks didn't come to my non-target school and I've been trying to do banking for a little bit and that i knew my tas job would get me there. I'm basically starting as a first year analyst but I imagine that there may be an opportunity for quicker responsibility since I have a good footing on the valuation aspect although it'll be a learning curve about the M&A process.
I'm going into banking assuming I'll do 2 years analyst then do PE but who knows. I've always thought I'd go to b school but i have a few years before needing to make that decision. I don't think I would lateral to a larger shop considering my bank is a solid MM although lesser known. I don't need / want to be MF PE and don't need to brag about a $20B M&A deal that would only happen at larger banks.
I would say just reach out to people periodically. It's better when you have a current relationship with them before you tell them you've applied to their firm. The process is very random so I basically took the first offer I got and cancelled other banks that I was in the interview process with. I had a few recruiters (Selby Jennings sucks, btw) but they were largely useless. I got my current offer from just applying and networking.