Citi Corporate Banking vs. NERA Economic Consulting?

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Hey!

Sorry to get back a little later, but let me answer your questions to the best of my ability.

1) Location: To be honest, NY sounds like a great opportunity and it'll put you in front of so many people in leadership roles that I think even if you don't like it, moving around shouldn't be hard. However, as a caveat, NERA pay + NY = 0 savings. Nonetheless, it would be a great opportunity to experience some more "quantitative consulting" with an opportunity to use the Marsh-Mclennan connection to move across their insurance and strategy consutling businesses. Again, they have an internal 2 year rotational prorgam if I remember correctly, it'd be a great option. Houston, I have never been to Texas so I can't say, but if you can see yourself focusing on energy consutling, or energy industry based work down the line, I wouldn't want to anywhere else, plust you'd save a shit tonne as coat of living would be lower (than NY).

2) Work: It's a well known fact that NERA is heavily academic, a lot of the higher ups have their Ph.D's in economics and law, so if you like that atmosphere you'll love it and never want to move, if you're not the bookish type, you'll loathe it. I don't know how the water flows in terms of analysis at corproate banking, but I know from anecdotal experiences with friends in corproate banking that it's very entrepreneurial. Case in point, a friend of mine workes in the small-mid business corproate banking division for a large American bank, her job involved everything from scrutinizning clint numbers to ensure liquidity, financing, and other concerns were met, to doing industry analysis, and meeting C-suite executives to discuss growth and expansion plans, process flows, and loan issues. Basically you worked as a partner with the buainess executives and this came with perks too, as you developed a huge network.

3) Energy: If it says energy then be expected to work in that sector, especially if your beinf sent to Huston. However, here are few points, take them for what their worth:
- Energy is a perennial sector, and developing an expertise in it can pay rich dividends (fracking, renewables, Tesla needs experts in this field and others will too down the line!)
- It probably means 99% of your clients will be from the energy sector but their needs may vary, one may need to finace a new drilling project, whereas the other may need to hedge some commodity risk so, don't think that it's all doom and gloom :)

All in all, I don't think you can go wrong, it's a choice between academic versus practical imho.

Cheers OP!

OP has deleted all posts, but for the sake of WSO posterity, let me clear up some points on NERA.

1) NERA Pay + NY != 0 savings. Completely and totally false. Sure, it isn't IBD money, but salaries here are only slightly lower than MBB, and our work/life balance is considerably better than theirs.

2) The "well known fact" that economic researcher sneed to be "bookish" or "heavily academic" types is severely overstated. Yes, you need to have done serious economics in undergrad. Yes, you need to be quantitatively apt. Yes, if you want to do a PhD or a JD, this is probably the best job you can have, and those are definitely exit options for some people. But this isn't Oxford University on the Hudson, it's a consulting firm. The way some people bang on you'd think we all go around in tweed jackets ruminating on what the meaning of "is" is. I'm sick of hearing interviewees tell me they want to do a PhD when everything about their resume and transcript suggest otherwise. At least half the grad school exists in my office are to M7 MBA programs. This is the path I'm currently on.

3) Personally, I've never seen someone "use the Marsh-Mclennan connection to move across their insurance and strategy consutling businesses." I'm not really sure what you meant by this, but whatever it is, it probably doesn't happen all that often.

Aroraro, I'm not sure who your friends in this line of work are, but they haven't represented the work well to you at all.