Del

I agree with other posters so far (including the swinging dick fellow who makes a very good point - join a strong team where deal flow is good; you want to learn skills).

This is a good question on product versus coverage and it depends on what you want. If your only goal is to move to PE / HF after 2 years, don't consider product groups (with the exception of M&A for banks that have that, Leveraged Finance maybe, and Restructuring maybe). Most coverage groups will likely position you as a generic candidate with good all-round skills, except a few niche ones (but like another user commented, even they have PE / HF counterparts).

If you want to stay in banking it's an interesting question. Product teams are more technical, and if you're super smart you can differentiate yourself at a young age from others in your peer group by picking up the skills faster (while others are doing company profiles and comps). However, at the more senior level my view is that it's easier to differentiate yourself in Coverage teams (by building better relationships, having better content, and straightforward being more useful to your clients by knowing more stuff). Product teams have a lot of knowledge, but there's not a big and easy gap to differentiate two ECM MDs within their control - the technicals have generally flattened out.