Corporate financial analyst vs Boutique PE

I have an opportunity to join a large company's corporate finance team. The role reports to strategy and M&A. To me, this role seems very much like what a small boutique PE fund would do because most of the acquisitions are relatively small, and there will be lots of ongoing operational analysis/benchmarking.

I do not have the "must go PE" mindset, but just wondering your thoughts on taking this opportunity over waiting for a small PE fund offer. Also, this corp fin role has a salary of ~75k all in, what would you guesstimate most small funds' salaries would be?

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doing f500 finance is a bit of a crapshoot at the junior levels. If you are lucky, you can some really interest forecasting/FP&A work, which you can spin off and lateral to a BB or go top shelf MBA. You can also end up doing Journal entries all day, so definitely don't want to do that lol. I'm curious about the PE shop's comp, and whether there's too much of a discrepancy in pay to warrant going that route. I believe that PE may potentially open more doors for you if you want to lateral to an bank.

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