Want to Work in NYC. What Should I Do?

I am a college senior who got a full-time offer at a MM/EB firm in a regional office. The team is one of the best in its covered industry (good deal flow and many >$1bn deals, great comp as well). However, I am not very interested in this industry and I always wanted to work in NY for the generalist program. I really need some advice here and I would appreciate any suggestions on how to make the jump.

I guess there are two questions:

  1. Should I continue to recruit for full time or should I wait for lateral opportunities after I start working full time? Given that full time recruiting is basically over and it's also dangerous to burn bridges now.

  2. Is it worth it if I join a weaker team in NY? I know that many would say that if I am not interested in the industry, I should look for other opportunities. However, maybe the exit opportunity would become worse if I jump to a weaker NY team?

I would appreciate any input!

12 Comments
 
Most Helpful

Living on analyst money in NYC is pretty difficult. The "NY dream" sucks in reality when you are living in a 600sf 1 bedroom flexed to 2 bedrooms and still paying huge rent.

It's going to be hard to find an equally good FT job at this point, and very few NY programs are "generalist" - you will be placed into an industry, probably not of your choice. M&A is "generalist" but that is usually pre-filled with returning interns.

My advice: Stay in your current role for 1 year and then start looking for lateral opportunities if you still want to be in NY. It will not be hard to move to an EB/BB with a year of solid experience

Array
 

Thank you for your advice and it's very helpful! Is it really not hard to move to an EB/BB in NY after a year working in a regional office? I always feel like opportunities are limited for EB/BB laterals. Thanks!

 

More analysts than you'd think leave after a year/year and a half, and it's hard to poach other BB/EB classes especially those with PE offers. EB IB analyst (even if from energy, tech, or some other non-NY industry) with deal experience >>>> FP&A guy from industry with no experience.

Array
 

Addition question here. Should I start networking with NY bankers now so I have people to reach out to by the time I want to lateral over? Thanks!

 

Which regional location, if I may inquire? If it is West Coast, I would stay as exit opps on WC are also top tier.

 

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