What would you take over GS Classic?
Hey all, long time lurker here.
Got an offer from GS Classic a while ago and turned down offers from JPM and Barclays due to their exploding offers. Have no idea how group placement is going to work at GS this year since they changed it up a lot for 2019. I have until September to accept my GS offer and was wondering if I should keep shopping for other offers, especially from EBs. I know a few of them are done (got rejected from PJT lol) but I'm currently talking to a couple guys from CVP and heard EVR has a few spots they are leaving until August.
From talking to my friends at H/W, it seems all the top candidates are choosing EBs over top BBs and am wondering if I should keep gunning for an EB offer. What would you take over GS? Should I just take the GS offer?
For m&a banking, evercore is the only one I would consider (and probably take unless you feel you have strong group connections at gs). There are various restructuring groups and buyside opportunities that might make sense as well, depending on your interests.
TMT and FIG, though both will probably work you harder than Evercore and FIG is narrow (though exits are broad, you can get into practically any public or private fund that recruits banking analysts from GS FIG).
Consumer & Healthcare is really good as well, imagine it stacks up pretty well vs Evercore.
Personally, I’ve never seen or heard of anyone taking Moelis NY, Perella, Centerview or even Lazard over GS Classic - though I have seen many people take those banks over JPM and sometimes MS. My general perception (though I could be wrong) is that the firms people take over GS are not M&A (are either top restructuring groups or investing). Evercore is also top notch.
You will do some capital raising at GS, but you can generally tailor you banking experience at a top BB group to be mostly m&a if you’re a good analyst and that’s what you want to do. You’ll do BS pitches at EBs as much as BBs - have heard moelis particularly is a nightmare in this regard, chasing any deal they come across and dumping the pitch books on analysts. There may even be less of this at GS since live deal flow will be insane, particularly in tmt and fig. Also, ignore what you hear about multiple analysts on deals at BBs - that’s generally not the case at top tier firms, particularly GS, where you won’t have an m&a analyst cross staffed with a coverage analyst since there’s no execution m&a group. Based on my experience you should get total responsibility for the deals you’re staffed on as an analyst.
This is great info, thanks! Interesting, must be a recent trend then.. know three people who took PJT M&A/CVP/Moelis NY over GS last year, already know a few who took EVR/Moelis NYC over GS this year as well. Might just be due to their early recruiting timeline since a lot of the EBs recruited really early.
What exactly is GS Classic?
It's the version with blastoise
From a purely exit-ops perspective, I've heard that the top EBs (EVR/LAZ/PJT/Moelis/etc) place at least comparably (and sometimes even better than) some of the top BB groups (GS TMT, MS M&A, etc). For PJT M&A specifically, I've heard around a third to a half places into MFs, the rest into MMs and HFs. I'm sure there are similar numbers across the other EBs. Further, EBs send a disproportionately larger number of kids compared to BBs to top buy-side funds given their analyst class sizes (EVR has ~50, PJT M&A has ~15), and this probably something to take into consideration, assuming you're looking to exit. EBs also tend to be much more understanding of buy-side recruiting - a lot of the senior guys are willing to pick up the phone and vouch for you, and because the vast majority of your class is recruiting as well, there's probably more of a support system too. The culture and the increased pay are nice additional perks. In my opinion at least, I don't see how the MS or GS "brand name" outweighs the above benefits
Your exit opps assessment is very very off - pjt m&a didn’t place into a megafund besides one to warburg pincus this past class that exited, and I heard the class about to exit has one tpg and that’s it.
I would have taken the last IB offer I received if it wasn't rescinded. I thought I had it. MD told me verbally I had it, then some upper level exec let some internal hire take the position as he/she was promised this role in the company when they had an opening. MD didn't know about this promise or it wasn't communicated recently to him. Suchhhhhhh BS.
It was a small M&A group in a large company. Very small team, low hours, good pay, bonus really good, MD offered profit sharing as a part of the bonus. MD seemed awesome, was HBS grad, had a really impressive resume. I was excited to learn the tools of the trade from him, but it didn't happen.
But yeah, would take that over GS. The pay at GS isn't great for some roles at certain levels. The name GS is great but sometimes there is the 'Goldman Discount' on salary. There are definitely smaller shops out there as you progress in your career that offer better experience and benefits, in my opinion.