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You have to start thinking about what exactly it is that you want to do long term. The exit opps for IB vs S&T are incredibly different and the optionality favors heavily towards ibanking. If you want to break into the buyside, what strategies interest you the most? Keep in mind that S&T is going to prepare you for a smaller and more niche set of roles within the buyside vs ibanking, and this begins to amplify depending on the desk and role (sales vs trader) that you get put on. If you plan on exiting finance then IB would definitely be the way to go in my opinion.
With that being said, what group would you be joining at the MM? M&a? Levfin? ECM? And more importantly how good is that group at what they do? I personally don’t think this is talked about enough but there are certain groups within the most unexpected places that just happen to be the best at what they do. Keep in mind that no MM will ever compare to the GS name brand, however we are talking about two completely different skillsets that you have the option of developing.
These are just my personal thoughts (and very biased to be fair) but I really do think it boils down to what skillset you want to build and how you want to apply it in future roles.
Agreed. S&T will be more narrow. If you’re on structured lending, rates or credit trading, or even a structuring group - can get you to buyside. But prime brokerage sales? Not gonna happen I’d guess
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