Advice Needed on Career Move

Hey guys - long time reader, first time poster here. Need some advice. I spent two years at a top BB. Got ranked middle of my class, didn't really pursue PE and was pretty burned out. I wasn't really sure what I wanted to do afterwards, so took some time off. Have decided that I want to go back into banking, at least for a few years. Fortunate enough to have two offers, one at a non-NYC coverage office of a top BB. The other is in a product group (think ECM / DCM) at a highly ranked MM in its region. Both offers are ideally career track positions. I really like the culture of the MM firm and from what I've heard the quality of life is pretty good in the group. More importantly, the MM is in the city where I'd ideally like to be long term. The culture at the BB seems to be ok (obviously the hours are going to be a bit worse than the MM given that it's coverage vs. ECM / DCM), but it's in a city where I don't really know anyone and aren't particularly keen to go to.

Any thoughts on what I should do? I'm leaning towards taking the MM, especially since I already have a couple of years of BB experience under my belt. But I'm also wary of "diluting my brand" / shooting my career in the foot by not taking the BB offer, in case I ever want to do PE or an MBA at some point down the line.

Any thoughts on this?

 

The MM firm without a doubt. Read back what you wrote and the answer is extremely clear what you should do. Also the BB vs MM is always thrown out of proportion on this forum, but especially if you are considering this with a Non-NYC office. Congratulations and best of luck.

 

Ended up taking the MM. probably a bit of a controversial view on this forum to take a product group at a MM over coverage at a BB, but since I've already done my coverage years and am in it for the long haul it came down to location / culture for me. What do you guys think of the choice?

 

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