LMM PE or LMM IB to start career?
Hi, I'm currently a senior at a Southern semi-target that decided I wanted to pursue finance later in my undergrad years. As such, I missed the boat on recruiting but currently have 2 offers from smaller shops to start full time. My long-term career goals are to break into the buy-side, with a preference for HF. Location wise I am pretty agnostic as long as it's on a coast. I think I'd prefer the West Coast for weather and family there, but I understand NYC has more opportunities and would have better hours for public markets roles. I was wondering if I could get some advice on which to take.
LMM IB:
- Relatively active, 1-2 deals a year, typically in the ~50-150M range
- Base would be 100k and I was told they are targeting a bonus in the 30-60k range.
- In NYC
- Pretty lean deal team, 10 people and the hours seem typical for banking. As a Y1 Analyst I'd (hopefully) get good exposure on live deals.
- If I took this, I'd probably stay 1 year and try to lateral.
LMM PE:
- Pretty new, less than 5-10 years old
- Most recent fund was in the 100-500M range
- Mix of primary and secondary investments, less traditional buyouts. Investments are typically in the 20-50M range.
- Also lean team, 10 people. I would be doing mainly BizDev in the first 6 months but would get more investing exposure later on.
- In NYC
- Base is 90k, hours are probably lower (50-60) with hybrid schedule.
My end goal is to lateral to a more established fund/bank, and from there try to recruit for public equities roles. I'd also be open to PE/Growth Equity but I feel that might be harder to break into given my background.
Bump
IB, especially if you you want to go into anything public markets related. Starting your career I would lean towards what seat is going to give you the most reps. If it's an active shop and you will work on live deals, go there and potentially have the opportunity to lateral to a larger bank depending on market conditions.
I'd be weary of the BizDev responsibilities and activity on secondaries as it may be unclear on what sort of professional development experience you would be getting. The banking opportunity seems like it will give you the best experience to build your technical skills, though that would be dependent on if they are actually seeing dealflow or not. Solve for work life balance later in your career.
Thank you for the advice and I am definitely leaning towards the IB. I would ideally like to work at a MM HF one day, would you recommend I try to lateral to a more well-known bank first or would it be possible to recruit directly out of my current IB?
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