Big 4 M&A over Tiny Boutique? Please help
I am currently employed by a tiny boutique (6 people, tiny deals). Deal size within this industry are usually under $20m. I'm not liking my time here (rife with office politics, stupid decisions by management, poor advisory practices etc.). More worringly, I've heard rumours the firm has a bad rep in the market (we've been compared to used car salesmen, apparently).
I've received an offer to join a Big 4 M&A at the junior level. Pay is lower (60 vs 70) and no bonuses (maybe 1-2k vs my current 30k).
Overall goal is to move into a larger BB down the line. Which one should I go for? Current firm invests zero in my training but Big 4 will train me up. Money difference is huge but I'm fully aware my career is a marathon not a sprint. I'm leaning towards Big 4. I have many contacts in the industry, all of which urge me moving from Big 4 to BB is easier vs the boutique I am at now. I do zero modelling here (once again, poor advisory practices) and am a glorified intern (write reports, photocopy papers, update endless lists of databases etc.) and I'm keen to take my career to the next level, in fear of turning stale.
Help please.
Bump
Reputation is everything, go with Big 4. It’s a short-term compensation sacrifice in exchange for setting your resume up. Big 4 M&A (assuming you’re speaking of the Corp Fin group and not TAS/TS) get lots of dealflow, meaning you’ll get rapid exposure to a diversified set of M&A and capital raising deals between $50m to $250m.
Thanks CL. Would your opinion change if it was a TAS group?
It wouldn't if the Partner/MD runs a tight ship and the dealflow is good. My opinion is a tad biased given that I to this day have no clue exactly what TAS does. However, I've seen people move from TAS to MM PE so I would discount my preliminary comment on TAS. I think that your Partner's reputation makes a big difference. It'll be a driver for internally-referred dealflow and will help when speaking with headhunters. My MD was well known in the city and headhunters who of him, which made conversations and introductions smoother given that they knew I had received solid training. Hope this helps!
TAS differs among the Big 4 and in different countries but in general could refer to:
I was TAS, it's an excellent group that almost all other groups at the Big 4 (especially auditors) would kill to get into. Great for technical development and learning but I also enjoyed the work in general. Some people transition to banking/PE directly but I went back to business school to make the switch to BB IB, in part because I also wanted to move geographies (countries).
Take Big 4 and then search aggressively for BB gigs
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