I think I am having an existential crisis, help needed
I recently did an M&A internship at a BB (not GS/JPM) and received an offer. However, I did not enjoy the experience: although I like finance, the hours were brutal, I felt lonely/depressed from the lack of sleep and I am not sure if I want to do private equity in 1-2 years.
Now, I also received an ECM offer from a national bank (lower pay, chill people, better WLB) and I am thinking if I should take it or not. At this national bank I could potentially move internally in 1 year (LevFin, Coverage etc.), while at the BB I would be stuck in M&A, unless I move to London.
I cannot decide between the two offers and would like to hear some third party view on this.
If you don't think the hours are worth the money I don't think you should go for it. Trust me it gets worse when you actually start the job. I know ECM hours are in line with market hours but I have heard of people doing long hours here as well. If you are not sure either way, you could take that M&A offer and lateral later as it's easier to lateral with an M&A stint (modeling & deal experience) compared to ECM. Maybe you like M&A at the end who knows.
ECM hours can be bad (especially when market is busy) but still consistently better than M&A, on average. Recommend thinking about exit opportunities - ECM exits are more limited given lack of modeling experience but not a big deal if you’re avoiding PE exits.
Seems obvious to me that you will want to try ECM and switch to corp fin or something if ECM also depresses you.
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