IB or Strategic Finance at Tech Startup
I'm a graduating senior at a target school. I was initially going to return full time to a mid-tier BB (CS, BofA, Barclays) but I recently received an offer to join a late stage tech startup ($10+ bn valuation) on their strategic finance team. Just wanted some opinions on how I should think about this decision - comp, career risk, etc.
live your life YOLO
If you have any qualms or concerns about the tech offer other than being completely gun-ho about it, I'd suggest taking the BB offer first. Your optionality increases with banking and you might get an even sweeter strategic finance offer after 2 years there. If you end up hating both jobs and leave within 1.5-2 years, you end up better off moreso after banking.
Have done both, this is what I would recommend as well.
No brainer, do banking. Late stage startup means you won't get enough equity to be life changing. Not worth the risk/reward. Banking has the best optionality out of any starting job imo.
Agree with above. Strategic finance roles at large companies are pretty lame and overrated IMO. You end up doing a lot of low impact grunt Excel work, and don't have meaningful upside since it's so late stage. Banking will give you much better training and optionality to go into PE/VC if that's where you want to end up, or you can always go into strat fi from banking - they love hiring ex-bankers.
Lot of growth in the tech startup. I think it's easier to adjust to banking roles later. Will you be getting a good amount of equity in the startup?
Ended up taking the startup offer - I spent two summers in IB and hated it. Base was higher than that in banking and I got six figures of RSUs. Also pretty gung-ho about the role - it just fit better
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