Start in banking or buyside? HELP

Hey folks,

I know that the great majority of people start out as an IB analyst for 2 years and later join a fund as an associate. I was wondering how good of an idea it would be to rather start on the buyside. Let's assume I had an offer from an US EB in EMEA for a generalist IB analyst position, and an offer from a US technology investor in EMEA (mostly growth VC deals, lean team, multibillion AuM). What would you take?

My main concern regards the skillset you build (or don't?) in IB, I have never created a full DCF/LBO/Merger model outside school and have never worked on debt fundraising (though I've done several finance/tech internships) and am concerned it might be detrimental to my development not to go through IB. On the other hand, the buyside opp would pretty much be my dream job and I'm not assured to find another opportunity of this caliber after my analyst stint if I go the IB route.

Thoughts?

6 Comments
 

God this a tough one. Its tough to turn down your dream job with a better culture at a buyside but I feel like working in a BB would set you up better for your career far down the road. Nothing sounds better than saying you started your career at a Goldman or MS-its better than saying you went to Harvard. If I were you, I'd take banking if I were confident I would do well, because if you do you can certainly switch to later buyside-it will serve you better 30 years down the road.

Im also a college student though, so what do I know

 

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