What to do ? From Big4 M&A Transaction Services to LM M&A boutique (Clairfield)
From Big4 M&A Transaction Services to LM M&A boutique (Clairfield International)
- I graduated from a target school (think Bocconi; LSE; ESCP Paris; Imperial)
- I worked for c. 1 year as an Analyst in Big4 M&A Transaction Services in (think Milan; Berlin; Madrid; Rotterdam).
- My goal is to join a good MM advisory firm such as Houlihan Lokey in a financial hub (think London; New York; Singapore; Paris)
- I might have the opportunity to join a LM M&A boutique (Clairfield International) in a financial hub (think London; New York; Singapore; Paris)
Is it worth it or should I wait? Am I getting closer to a top MM M&A boutique or is it a dead end (c. will be even more difficult to lateral ?)
Clairfield v poor firm, grubby deals with poor flow. Not really worth it unless it would be the last and final option.
Thank you for your answer. Unfortunately, I'm still considering it because I feel that staying for >2y in TS could be fatal.
As someone who did the B4 to banking pivot, I think you’re undervaluing your B4 TAS experience. You get exposure to some great large cap clients, very demanding work, and useful technical skills. You have practice working in a high-volume client service role. These are good things that can be spun well to lateral directly to a MM bank (just make sure you work on the intangibles like presentation skills, relationship building, being social, etc).
I would wait it out in TAS for a little longer and make your move when banking hiring is hot again. Moving to banking, you are going to take an experience haircut no matter what. The problem with moving to a very poor boutique bank is that you’re likely to take the SAME experience haircut moving from there to a reputable MM, in addition to making your resume more “bouncy”. I would think carefully about the caliber of bank you’re willing to accept. Hope this helps!
Thank you very much for sharing this. That’s exactly what I’m afraid of: joining this LM M&A boutique and ending up doing more deals related to family-owned businesses, with no real exposure to accretion/dilution and probably many other things that I don’t know yet. This turn would get me into M&A but would likely close other doors (or make it even harder).
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