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I faced a similar choice as well and went with an EB. The decision was mainly due to people I knew / culture. At the EB I chose, I felt I had more intimate connections with senior bankers there. In fact one of the MDs had a very similar background to me and we immediately connected well after I met him during a networking event. He acted as a mentor throughout the process. Thus, I chose the EB because I had an in with senior employees at the firm coming in, which helped me a lot during summer to get staffings I wanted and I believe will help FT for staffings and exits. When you're at the level of choosing between EB and Top Tier BB's, I think differences between prestige, comp, and dealflow are marginal and your decision should come down to where you see yourself thriving in the best. Happy to discuss more, PM me for info.

 

If you have GS, would still recommend that over any EB gig besides PJT RX or maybe Evercore. Buyside placement in any gs classic group is still extremely strong, and exits are consistently overhyped for Moelis/CVP/Laz/PJT M&A. If you want to do something else after banking, GS will be better as well.

If you have MS or JPM, it's a tougher decision.

 

Don't know much about Greenhill, but know from friends in Moelis NY/PWP/PJT/CVP that there is a placement gap between GS and those EBs. All these places will do you fine for PE/HF (all certainly "place well"), but objectively I think your odds of a MF or top notch mm are higher at goldman. Moelis maintains an active annual placement list, and last 2 cycles have been more mm/credit oriented (with exception of 1-2 per year who go to apollo).

 

Would you rather be the only analyst, dealing with the client on a $20bn merger (Moelis/Evercore/CVP/PWP) or one of 12 analysts chipping in and sitting around until 1am waiting to get turns back on a BS deck. Experience at EBs >

 

While I agree that the experience at EBs is better (just a personal opinon however), I don't think its fair to characterize work at BBs as sitting around all day. At both EBs and upper-tier BBs you will get a good amount of exciting live deal experience, and yet also have to work on tedious pitches that will likely end up nowhere. Dealflow wise and live/pitch % balance are probably very similar across these firms, but where I think EBs really help is providing greater senior level exposure and more a chance to stand out / take greater responsiblity as a function of operating in leaner deal teams.

 

This discussion has been had multiple times on the forum, so I suggest you take a look through those and do some more research on pros and cons of each. Jefferies is not an EB at all - it's MM.

To give a succinct answer - yes they can be considered as well-regarded as BB's. Many people take Evercore, Blackstone, Centerview, etc. offers over the GS/JP/MS and vice versa.

Also, get the offer first. No need to compare at this point since you'll want to recruit for all of them anyways.

 

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