F100 FLDP vs. Boutique IB in no name city for VC/PE?
I have two offers on the table, Boutique IB in no name city and F100 FLDP.
Any input would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks in advance
I started off in a F100 FLDP after college. If you want to do VC/PE/IB, go with the boutique.
In my program, both of my assignments were in FP&A in two different business segments. You mainly help the business project its revenues and expenses and it is ALOT of accounting. The most modeling you'll do is building simple decision/risk models and maintaining your product line's operating model. Depending on your team, you could end up working on some interesting assignments (ie Evaluating Strategic "bolt-ons") but these are not typical and not at all a clear path to corporate finance.
The job did help me land an ER role. However, when I tried applying for IB positions , I got almost 0 responses.
In a similar situation as OP. Do you think VC's and PE's value fldps at all? How about FLDP vs boutique ib for b school?
Agree with EightAce... If you want to do VC/PE, go for a corporate finance role. I'm not an investment banker but from my own recruiting experience, I got very little responses from Investment Banks (even MM and Boutiques) with my FLDP experience. I received responses and interviews from banks that specialized in the same industry as the F100 that I worked for. But overall, didn't have too much luck.
As for business school, I haven't applied. But from my own research, I think an FLDP will make you competitive and won't necessarily put you at a disadvantage when being compared to an investment banker. B Schools probably group you in a different category.
For PE / VC no. They don't. I had to make a similar choice.
For B-School the FLDP is probably better actually, unless you lateral.
Do a year at the boutique and lateral to a brand name bank, from there your odds of getting into PE/VC are better.
is there a PE fund based in the no-name city?
Yes but I wouldnt want to live in that city for any time longer than a year
IB no question.
If you want to lateral: we'll look at people with banking experience, even a no-name bank in a no-name city. We do not look at F100 FLDP's.
If you want to go straight to PE: I've seen people from small boutiques at decent MM PE shops (rare but possible). I've never seen someone go straight from FLDP to PE.
Usually I give pros and cons, but this is pretty straightforward. Boutique IB 100%.
Thank you for the information. How about FLDP vs Big 4 ts?
Does Big 4 ts place well in PE/VC?
I'm really trying to avoid the boutique because it's literally in a no name city....
Life outside of work seems 100% better at the FLDP or big 4 location
Don't know really anything about VC but it doesn't place very well into PE. People overwhelmingly come from consulting or IB.
You won't get much love for buy-side recruiting regardless of whether you come from a no-name bank or an FLDP rotational program. It's clear you need to move from either of those starting roles then, and I'll echo everyone else saying that you're better off trying to lateral from the boutique than from the F100.
"Investment Banking Analyst" on your resume is going to do a lot more for you than you think. Regardless of whether you're a few blocks in Midtown away from the bank you're applying to or thousands of miles away in a dog-shit city you can't stand, people know you're getting relevant experience that only differs in scale.
Someone from my graduating class lateraled from a complete no-name boutique where he'd interned (I had seriously never heard of it, and it only had four analysts) to Goldman because he networked like a fiend. A guy I interned with who didn't get the return offer went to a tiny boutique in a small regional city where he grew up and had family connections (think St. Louis, Tampa, Phoenix). He ended up moving to the west coast generalist office of another BB.
I'd take the boutique job (and if you're a senior still on-campus, continue looking for a better boutique or MM firm; reneging from a tiny firm in a small city has few consequences), self-study modeling before taking the job, and dial things up with networking. 6-12 months in you should begin the lateral applications and hopefully get into a decent shop. You'll reset the analyst stint, but roughly a year in (depending on when you lateraled), you can begin recruiting for PE/VC.
If you want true VC (not late-stage or growth equity firms), it's an entirely different ballgame as the skill-set is very different (modeling and the hard finance skills are far less applicable).
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