Two job offers, please advise.
Two job offers, please advise.
Offer A: Commercial Banking Leadership Program. 18-month rotational program at a top 15 commercial bank. Leads to positions such as credit analyst, corporate banking analyst, DCM analyst, leveraged finance analyst, etc. 70k base, 5% annual, 5k signing. LCOL Midwest. 40-50 hours/week.
Offer B: Investment Banking Analyst. Lower Middle Market M&A firm that also does direct investment/private equity transactions. Well known regionally, “no-name” outside of my area. Strong deal flow, been around for decades, still growing. 60k base, 80% target bonus. 55-70+ hours/week. LCOL Midwest.
Any insight is greatly appreciated.
Depends on what you want, really. If it was me, I'd go for the first option because it looks like it leads into investment banking anyway (DCM/levfin).
Imo this depends on where you see yourself in 5+ years, which can be hard to visualize near the beginning of your career.
If I were you, the decision comes SOLELY down to:
Do you see yourself staying with the same firm for a long time, or do you think you’ll want to experiment or try other opportunities?
If you want to stay with a company long term, the leadership rotation will be great because you’ll get exposure to many segments and, more importantly, make connections across the company. I’d also say that if you’ve not worked in any of those areas before, it could give you a flavor of everything; although no telling how you get placed after the rotations are over (it’s probably worth it to ask about this if you haven’t)
If you think you want to change cities, go to a larger banking platform, jump to the buyside, or dont have ANY idea what you think you want to do 5+ years from now, then I would argue that the IB analyst role is best. On WSO there’s the huge idea about “no-name” banks but I can tell you from experience and observations that if you’ve got “IB Analyst” as a title people automatically bucket you as a candidate worth speaking to and of a higher caliber than others.
I think lastly I’d just say the IB role, despite being a boutique, will offer you more optionality down the line vs the rotational program.
Nothing wrong with either choice, but this early on in your career I would completely ignore the salary, expected hours, etc. Its all about building skills and a network right now, the big money in finance comes later on down the line. It’s a big decision and you can’t go wrong with either here ultimately, it comes down to your preference.
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