Oh wow, I didn't even notice that until now. Evercore will afford you both M&A and restructuring opportunities at the junior-level, whereas at Blackstone you're only going to be doing M&A (which is virtually non-existent at this point). You'll see more deal opportunities at Evercore given the boom in restructuring work. Also, even when M&A picks back up, Evercore M&A easily trumps BX M&A. It's a no brainer on both levels.

 
Best Response
humblethyself:
Evercore, no question. Especially if you like the culture there better. Evercore also has a great working relationship with Silver Lake (advised them on a few separate occasions) and they've sent a couple to SL over the past few years.

Blackstone sent two M&A analysts from the class of 2006 alone to Silver Lake last year. Everyone ends up at top buy-side or top b-school. Evercore has great name recognition if you wanna stay within the world of finance, but if you have potential b-school aspirations (which many PE firms will want you to get), I doubt Evercore's name recognition will get you as far as Blackstone's. Plus, the dean of HBS is now on Blackstone's board for whatever that's worth.

humblethyself:
Oh wow, I didn't even notice that until now. Evercore will afford you both M&A and restructuring opportunities at the junior-level, whereas at Blackstone you're only going to be doing M&A (which is virtually non-existent at this point).

There's not enough people to go around with the work that Blackstone M&A has right now doing the AIG mandate, among others. Furthermore, if you take a look at the Thomson-Reuters rankings for worldwide completed M&A for the 2008 calendar year, you'll see that Blackstone ranks 19th, Moelis ranks 21st, and Greenhill ranks 25th. Evercore ain't even on the top 25.

charliet54:
Yeah in this scenario I'd take Evercore. There's a lot of things I'd take before Blackstone M&A. They weren't great to begin with and I can't imagine they (or any other M&A-only group) are up to much these days.

True, Blackstone M&A has never been a huge group, even though they were the founding division of Blackstone. But they are continuing to expand rapidly even in this environment, and the future is what you need to look at, not the past. Plus, just look at the recent list of completed deals, and you'll see that Evercore isn't that "great," either. I'd take Greenhill over Evercore, for both reasons of dealflow and of culture.

P.S. Back in the day, I interviewed at all three boutiques mentioned in this post.

 
nonskaterhater:
I guess what I don't really understand is what type of place I can expect to get into from Blackstone M&A vs. Evercore for PE. At Evercore, is it still reasonable to expect that I'd get interviews at all the top PE shops like I'm told I would at Blackstone? My (admittedly somewhat weak understanding) is that both places would get you the interviews and then from there, it's up to you to get the job. Can anyone help me understand if the differential in exit ops (if any) is really worth fussing about, meaning that I should go by fit if anything? I'm just afraid if I choose Evercore, I might be shortchanging myself on PE exit ops which are extremely important to me, so that's why I'm a bit hesitant to commit myself either way right now.

Any more thoughts? I really appreciate all these posts!

To be honest, the intensity of your worries is slightly premature in that landing a summer analyst offer is no guarantee of a FT gig. If you're so bent on doing PE, why not jump straight in? Silver Lake hires analysts, for example, so why not do a PE internship this summer instead?

 

I personally think that with current banking services acting essentially like commodities (i.e. the work you do bank to bank is very similar), you're best off choosing the firm with better prestige and name recognition, which would be Blackstone M&A.

 
I personally think that with current banking services acting essentially like commodities (i.e. the work you do bank to bank is very similar), you're best off choosing the firm with better prestige and name recognition, which would be Blackstone M&A.

Except that the work is NOT similar. At all. Blackstone M&A is just that -- M&A. Evercore's generalist position will let you do M&A AND restructuring. This is the crucial difference. You'll be doing top M&A work (Pfizer-Wyeth) AND you'll be doing top restructuring work (Sirius). EASY choice, IMO.

 
humblethyself:
I personally think that with current banking services acting essentially like commodities (i.e. the work you do bank to bank is very similar), you're best off choosing the firm with better prestige and name recognition, which would be Blackstone M&A.

Except that the work is NOT similar. At all. Blackstone M&A is just that -- M&A. Evercore's generalist position will let you do M&A AND restructuring. This is the crucial difference. You'll be doing top M&A work (Pfizer-Wyeth) AND you'll be doing top restructuring work (Sirius). EASY choice, IMO.

No worries if you want to get a taste of restructuring but still want to go to Blackstone M&A. Given that Blackstone also has a top restructuring shop, I'd bet that you'll likely be working in conjunction with the restructuring group as well, since the massive numbers of asset sales required of AIG to pay back its government loans will also likely involve significant restructuring work.

 
nonskaterhater:
After finding out the actual placement of graduating analysts into PE/HFs, I am now convinced that they were extremely comparable over the past two years. So exit options at Blackstone M&A have historically NOT been significantly better.

One caveat (according to a VP at a PE fund) is that Evercore might have been able to place comparably when the PE market was good, but that whether Evercore will be able to maintain this over the next few years is unclear. I would add to that Evercore has scored some nice deals lately so my personal impression is that Evercore would be able to maintain its placement, but it's something to consider.

It's no surprise that there's no "significant" difference in placement into the buyside for Blackstone and Evercore. When both firms have top placement, there's little margin of variability.

With that said, you're approaching this decision with too limited a scope of deciding factors. You seem so bent on this idea of PE placement, but ultimately it comes down to YOU. Sure, the firm helps, but placement depends on more than that. Plus, who even knows what the buyside is going to look like 3 years?

Furthermore, your approach is a little too "scientific." What I mean is that from what it seems like, if you had enough data for it, you'd run a freaking multiple regression analysis to determine your likelihood of "getting into the PE/HFs."

Chill out, man!

There are more things to life, and to work. Go with the heart, so to speak. Which culture is good for you? Where do you fit in? Where do you see people that you'd want to work with for 15 hours a day? Where do you feel comfortable? Like I said, you can't go too much wrong with either firm, so basing your decision on "quantifiable factors" like placement and whatever is going to lead you to the same conclusion you've already reached: that for the most part, top tier firms aren't gonna be ridiculously different.

Blackstone will almost surely give you more diverse options down the line, especially if you decide not to stay in finance. But then again, maybe that doesn't matter to you, since you're sacrificing your life to the "altar of buyside."

 

If you have an offer at both, go where you felt the best connection with the people you interviewed with or ask to come in for a half hour and chat with some more people. In the end, you will be spending the next two years of your waking life with these people and you will produce a better work product for people you enjoy working with. That is a fact. Working 100 hrs a week is one thing, but working those hours for people you can't stand is whole nother ball game. And ultimately, the people you click with best will provide you with the best exit opps in two ways: 1) by going to bat for you 2)you enjoying and producing better work.

We can argue until the cows come home about where these firms have placed over the past two years, but it's arguably pretty close and in the end that will be more up to you than anyone else.

 
WHMD:
humblethyself:

Evercore, no question. Especially if you like the culture there better. Evercore also has a great working relationship with Silver Lake (advised them on a few separate occasions) and they've sent a couple to SL over the past few years.

Blackstone sent two M&A analysts from the class of 2006 alone to Silver Lake last year. Everyone ends up at top buy-side or top b-school. Evercore has great name recognition if you wanna stay within the world of finance, but if you have potential b-school aspirations (which many PE firms will want you to get), I doubt Evercore's name recognition will get you as far as Blackstone's. Plus, the dean of HBS is now on Blackstone's board for whatever that's worth.

humblethyself:

Oh wow, I didn't even notice that until now. Evercore will afford you both M&A and restructuring opportunities at the junior-level, whereas at Blackstone you're only going to be doing M&A (which is virtually non-existent at this point).

There's not enough people to go around with the work that Blackstone M&A has right now doing the AIG mandate, among others. Furthermore, if you take a look at the Thomson-Reuters rankings for worldwide completed M&A for the 2008 calendar year, you'll see that Blackstone ranks 19th, Moelis ranks 21st, and Greenhill ranks 25th. Evercore ain't even on the top 25.

charliet54:

Yeah in this scenario I'd take Evercore. There's a lot of things I'd take before Blackstone M&A. They weren't great to begin with and I can't imagine they (or any other M&A-only group) are up to much these days.

True, Blackstone M&A has never been a huge group, even though they were the founding division of Blackstone. But they are continuing to expand rapidly even in this environment, and the future is what you need to look at, not the past. Plus, just look at the recent list of completed deals, and you'll see that Evercore isn't that "great," either. I'd take Greenhill over Evercore, for both reasons of dealflow and of culture.

P.S. Back in the day, I interviewed at all three boutiques mentioned in this post.

Wow, three years later. I am reading your post as if reading classics. Less relevant, but truly helpful.

Stay Strong!
 

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