SA in NYC: Lazard Financial Advisory or RBC Generalist

Hey all,

Long time user here and first time posting (please be nice).

Recently received a SA offer from RBC for next summer in NYC, I'm pretty excited about it but there's lots of mixed reviews on here about RBC (exit opps, BB vs MM, etc) and I don't get why. Everyone I met with was awesome, seems like an incredible culture to be a part of, and they seem to be killing it in the last few years. Their top groups seem to be M&A, Industrials, Tech and LevFin (there's a mutual selection period after you accept where you rank your top choices and they rank you back).

I'm interviewing with Lazard in the coming weeks for SA next summer as well. Haven't heard too much about them, other than they advise on some pretty big deals and seem to be near big BBs in M&A activity. Can someone touch on differences in exit opps, deal flow, work hours? Exit to PE is definitely attractive to me but also could end up staying in banking for the long-term if I like it.