Why do people choose BB/EB instead of MM Boutiques?

I have a friend who's currently interning at a BB and he told me the Analysts work crazy hours (7 days a week) with realistically speaking only 1/2 protected saturdays a month. While the analysts at the boutique where I'm interning NEVER work on weekends (saturday & sunday).

Even more interesting is that the people who work at MF work the same amount of hours like at a BB. While the people I've met at a MM fund work significantly less than at a BB. The Guys at some LMM funds seem to have even better hours (sometimes they leave at 5pm).

So why do many people want to follow the BB -> MF / Upper MM path? Is it only because of the prestige and money?

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Because the bulk of people on this website have a "go big or go home" mentality. The bad hours are accepted as a price to pay and a means to an end.

"one for the money two for the better green 3 4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine" - M.F. Doom
 

I basically had the same hours as a BB working in MM if not worse. Personally, I'm not trying to kill myself. If someone had shown me a shop where you could do 60 hours per week and get good deal experience, I would do it in a heartbeat. The problem is that these are very rare opportunities.

Also, on a side note, it's pretty difficult to identify such opportunities. Seen any IB openings advertising 60 hours per week and great deal flow on the application? You basically have to know the group or find out in the interview.

 

True, I'm from a small european country (compared to the US) so I know what kind of firms usually work how many hours. I guess this is much more difficult in the US.

To be honest my long term goal is a lmm/mm pe fund where I work 50-60 hours (more 50) but still make decent money. I never had the ambition to work at a upper mm/mf fund. So I assume a good MM boutique will be fine.

 
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