Starting a career at a merchant bank vs. IBD if I want PE down the road?

Came upon an offer to summer at a merchant bank that does investing work in addition to advisory services. They tried to sell me on the fact that i'd be honing the skills to think like an investor right out of school and that its much easier to pivot within the industry than to break in. Very compelling argument but I had previously set my sights on 2 yrs IBD -> PE. Is this as great of an opportunity as they are making it seem or would it be better to continue recruiting for BB / EB?

Come from a target so feel like I would also be able to land a traditional IB internship for next summer, but don't want to give up on this opp. if it would be more attractive. Also it is my only current offer although am in rounds with some i-banks.

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Because Byron Trott is an all time great banker. A very close family friend of mine is one of their top clients and raves over how good of a guy Byron is.

The BDT team hires top bucket talent. They do interesting work and get to split investment and advisory. They have a great office location. Doing half and half makes you unique. Maybe you lose a little vs. pure investing vs. BB/EB but who cares - very cool experience.

And to be perfectly honest with you: they are in the top 10% of nicest, look-out-for-others type people I have met in the industry. They have that Chick-fil-a level of niceness that you just don’t see often.

 

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