Lazard, JPM, BCG help choose

Get an offer first and when you have the choice, please give a shout!

Choose a field in which you think you can be at ease. Enjoy your job, do it correctly and you'll maximize your exit opps. It seems that you want to run before being even able to stand on your feet.

Camondo, I'm pretty sure he has offers from all three, considering how late it is in the process. This general topic is covered pretty frequently, and the answer is the same; it's a personal choice, depending on what you want to do and what sort of culture you like. If you plan to stay in finance, Lazard is better, but that doesn't mean you can eliminate JPM, considering that Lazard is notorious for its culture; if you liked the fit when you interviewed, then that's good, but otherwise, caveat emptor. If you plan to go to general business, the JPM name will have better cachet than Lazard, but BCG would be best of all. I'd suggest you think about where you want to be in 5 years, and maybe even 10 years; consider what is important to you in a job and in life; and then put together a pro/con list for each position in terms of how it helps you meet your long-term goals, and how it would satisfy each aspect of a job that you identified as being important to you.

As an aside, please note that topics like this belong in the "Get a Job" forum, not cluttering up the IBD forum.

I'm assuming the BCG role is general mgmt consulting.

What are the positions/divisions at Lazard & JPM?

they are all great firms. personally, I would choose BCG, JPM, Lazard in that order

BCG if you want business school, although all three will do you well

Lazard is more prestigious than JPM, although both are at top of the tables

It's really a win win win situation, but BCG is a lot different than the other two

While Lazard does have quite the reputation, I have heard from people at megashops (KKR, BX), that sometimes people prefer analysts coming from larger shops like GS/MS/JPM rather than pure advisory shops. Congrats on the offers, you really can't go wrong with any of them.

JPM M&A > Lazard M&A simply b/c you get more deal experience

BCG is completely different, so do you want banking or not....

I won't say one is better or worse than the other. The experience will be different.

The volume of deals you will see at JPM M&A will be greater. This is because at Lazard, you'll be more involved in the transaction and see the entire thing through. You'll have to do industry pages, build all the presentations, etc. Whereas in M&A at JPM, you'll just be focused on the financials and modeling. You'll also spend less time pitching at JPM, as your purpose will be to focus on execution and let the industry groups pitch. However, at Lazard you'll get better experience on how to run a deal from start to finish.

Another thing to consider is that at Lazard you will be put into an industry group and only learn to model their specific metrics. At JPM, you will model across all the industries.