I don't want BB/EB

You should obviously look to apply everywhere (BBs, EBs, MMs and boutiques), until you land an offer.

I worked for a small IB firm in Europe, and here are some of the downsides: - Lack of structured training (as you mentioned already) - Lots of pitching, many boutiques do not have a robust dealflow, and hence, less transaction experience for you - Lack of a community feel. While you'd think this would be the opposite at a boutique where everyone knows each other, things can get quite stale, quite quickly, when there isn't a large Analyst cohort going through the 'IB experience' with you. Also, if you have a bad Associate or Director, this will be much harder to avoid at a smaller firm - Lack of resources. Not as many sector-specific publication subscriptions will be available to you, which makes populating market overviews etc. much harder. No in-house graphics team. Not enough admin staff, which means you'll be doing even more boring work on top of what you'd already be doing - Lack of brand recognition within and outside of IB (both professionally and academically) - Not as many people to learn from. This offsets the 'greater responsibility and exposure' you'd get. Everyone has different styles and approaches to their work, and being able to take the best practices from a large number of people is only a good thing. This is more likely to happen at a larger MM, BB, elite boutique etc.

I do agree though, that the more senior guys (VP and above) tend to have better hours at boutiques. Though this won't always translate to the more junior levels. Also, every boutique will have their own cultures. Some might be even worse than the stories you hear about Lazard or Moelis.