William Blair Vs Fifth Third
I’m a sophomore at a non-target trying to think through the best path for junior summer recruiting. Long term I genuinely want to work in M&A or ECM and eventually try to lateral to a BB platform, but coming from a non-target that path feels unlikely right out of undergrad.
I have some relevant finance experience including exposure to institutional investing work, which has led to interest from William Blair for a fund placement / private capital advisory role.
At the same time, there may be an opportunity to pursue a traditional regional middle market investment banking role at Fifth Third with direct exposure to the sell side M&A processes.
If the long-term goal is BB or EB M&A / ECM, which path is generally viewed as better?
Is it more valuable to get direct deal reps at a smaller bank, or take the stronger brand and capital advisory experience? Also how realistic is it to lateral from regional MM IB to a larger platform if performance is strong?
Would appreciate any thoughts.
You are in for a surprise if you think you’re going to get any sell side m&a reps at 5/3rd, Blair no doubt that’s a extremely reputable platform
Depends on the group at 5/3 but if it’s actually IB, you definitely get M&A reps. Like 10-15 or so MDs solely focused on M&A, it’s just LMM/MM so you’d have to be fine with that
Get the offers first, but I would lean WB. 5/3 is going to be all capital markets work - not a bad role if you're ok staying there or doing similar work, but if you're expecting to get a bunch of M&A reps or exit to PE after 5/3, I would adjust your expectations. Blair is also a better name for MBA apps if that's something you decide to do later.
Kind of a nutty question considering you don’t have either offer yet
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