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Depends on what you want to do long term. If you want to go to B-school having a brand name might help but personally I would rather have the acquisition experience early in my career.
What's the AUM for the smaller firm?
Lets say hypothetically ~ $1 bn USD AUM
I hate to say it but: "it depends"
I would probably go acquisitions then.
I wouldn't rule out the AM position if its truly at a top shop, even if you want to do acquisitions down the road. You will gain a lot of asset-level experience/knowledge which would be valuable as an acquisitions guy. Having a big name on a resume helps too.
a lot of personal preference in this one, but if it were me, i'd always take acq at a small shop - unless it was one of those weird shops where you look at the backgrounds of the employees and scratch your head. and even then i'd consider it.
Ha! so true. Acquisitions usually trumps AM in my book, but like prospie stated, this is a huge personal preference.
To muddy the waters a little bit... Some of my friends (on both sides) think the grass is greener on the other side. One of my friends in acquisitions complains about his work life balance and says that the people in their shop on the AM make more than enough to justify the better quality of life. Then my friend in AM says he likes what he does, but wishes it was more interesting & he was able to do more of the underwriting. This is at the same shop btw.
I focus in acquisitions and have had a AM type role in my last job. Acquisitions is way better in my opinion (all else equal, just comparing job functions for a company of equal footing).
Thanks for the replies, I guess this is one of those prestige v experience questions
Another thing to consider might be the level internal mobility to move from AM to acquisitions. At some firms this is a common transition and at others it is the exact opposite. If you are able to somehow gauge what the situation is at this particular company, that might be useful information to help make a decision
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