Exit Opps: Lazard vs. Moelis vs. Evercore

I've decided to do a series of posts analyzing the various exit opportunities in banks, consultancies and PE shops. For this week I chose three EBs (given that they are often compared to each other and are roughly the same size in terms of headcount) and tried to find out how many of their grads end up in the big four PE mega funds. Below are the results.

Let me know in the comments what combo of firms or banks to do next week!

chart

[Background: Over the winter lockdown I coded a software tool that allows to crunch LinkedIn data like a boss. Originally, I meant it to be a company management due diligence tool for investors, but later I realised that its a lot more fun to use on large organizations like banks or PE funds.]

Links to raw data: Lazard, Moelis, Evercore. Go to "Timeline", click on "Past Employees", click "Show other jobs" to see where people end up after leaving.

41 Comments
 
Most Helpful

Former FT Moelis analyst here. First and foremost, the big 4 included at the top does not include Apollo which may be bigger than TPG but idk. Of all the MF PE, Apollo may be the most Moelis heavy of them from what I saw given the Drexel/Milken heritage of founders and amount of business they do together still. Ditto with Oaktree. When I was there I think my year and year below each sent 2 to APO PE my year had another 2 to OAK I believe. BX, Carlyle, KKR, TPG were all represented as well. For the most part, in my nyc class of 30, I don’t think most wanted to go to a MF. Especially given the working hours we had, people generally sought exit ops with better WLB. The majority did seem to go to PE but opted for maybe MM with better WLb and still great pay (one even went to a MF spin out I believe). A fair amount did Corp Dev or start up type stuff at like hot tech companies. A fair bit went to HFs or like Distressed Debt PE type stuff. Maybe a few did private credit. Kinda a fair bit around. Some stayed in banking to some extent. I think the exits depend more on the individual person. I was fairly interested in exploring MF PE and felt that all the Headhunters were more than happy to put me in front of their clients for that which was nice. Moelis is a respected name for sure. I even got interviews with people who personally knew Ken and just liked him so they interviewed me…. 
 

These EB/BB banks are all great and it’s kinda like once you go to a “target” school it doesn’t make too much of a difference. You find plenty of people from all schools (though especially target schools) at all major banks and you prob find people from all major banks (and the like) at all the major PE firms from my experience 

good luck in your new job. I’m happy to connect over DM or whatever if I can be helpful for you for your Moelis gig. Glad to have another person join the crew… :)

edit: for what it is worth, I do remember overhearing at least at first or early on in my time at Moelis that some of the people who went to traditional non-target schools maybe felt some discrimination at first because of where they went to school in terms of being able to get the exit ops they wanted. Not too long after even that one person that comes to mind ended up getting a great job and has moved around a fair bit since to some top-notch opportunities. It was prob just at first he felt the “non-target” label stick to him from what I understood and then overtime where he went to college became much more of an asset rather than a “chip on his shoulder” in others’ eyes maybe. Just trying to maybe give some other experience here as my experience is only mine and I was able to go to a target school which may have had impact on my observations above 

 

Would it be possible to do this for the M&A groups across the BBs? Think that would be very interesting/helpful as well

 

Are you the one that made the website? I just remember seeing the maker post a week or two ago. Anyhow, awesome graphic

"Markets can stay irrational longer than you can stay solvent."
 

I feel like thats dumb. You can break in anywhere from anywhere its up to the individual. Assuming you are already in college anyways, just focus on improving your candidacy rather than focus on what is less in your control

path less traveled
 

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Career Advancement Opportunities

June 2026 Investment Banking

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