To keep things real short and straight to the point:
Been working at a no name boutique for under a year now straight out of college. Attended a strong target with a 3.0 GPA and had various internships, one of which led to a grad offer at a Big 4 CF. I loved my time there and the team was solid as hell. However, I accepted another offer to join this boutique and it hasn't been the best of times.
Work flow is slow (albiet picking up slowly), chairman is erratic and stingy, quality of mandates are poor (EV $15m) and training is pretty much zero. Pay is below street but bonuses (which due to stinginess are not as was promised in my interviews) are meant to make up for that.
Question is, should I jump ship back to Big 4? My FT offer still stands (cos it was a year in advance) and nobody would be the wiser to the fact I had accepted two FT offers. I always wanted to be in IB, but I feel like my current shop is barely IB due to the poor quality of mandates we accept. Would Big 4 CF be better or should I stick around this current shop? I've been promised a significant pay rise and a promotion by EOY but I've been dicked around before so I'm not sure...
Please help, and thanks guys.
Do you mean CF as in their advisory group (~IBD) or their internal CF department? If it's the former, I'd probably switch to Big 4 (Assuming they actually do deals). Have there been other analysts at this boutique? What have they gone on to do?
Agreed Big 4 CF is definitely not a bad place to be in and certainly a good spot that you can lateral over into another bank after, if your Big 4 CF job was Deloitte then that’s a league of its own and is a relatively strong MM player in IB given their acquisition of McColl Partners in 2013
CF as in advisory. Pay is substantially lower (50k all in) when you factor the bonuses I receive from my current shop.
I'm on the fence since at my current shop I'm given autonomy and can originate deal flow (due to flat heirarchy). My firm is well-known in the LMM of the sector we operate in, and we mainly do M&A work. At the Big 4, I'm guessing I'll just be a cog in a mammoth mechanism. That's partly why I'm so conflicted.
Analysts have had mediocre exits from this shop. Some went to Big 4 M&A, very few went to consulting firms, most exit into nothing. I think in terms of exit opps, Big 4 CF would be better.
And just to clarify, Big 4 CF is an 18 month rotation in different areas within advisory (think FDD, Valuations, M&A etc).
Bump
$50K all in? Naw naw
$50k difference all-in or 50k all-in comp?
$50k all in comp at Big 4, $55k base + ~$10k bonus + fee split % at my current shop. I'm being promised that my base will be bumped to around $70k in a few weeks but I'm skeptical.
from former Big 4 M&A Advisory Manager / current BB IBD Associate....
Big 4 CF 100%, do not pass Go, do not collect $100 Come on, you can make an entire career inside the Big 4 across a bunch of different teams (and even locations around the world), you'll get a ton of training, support for qualifications (CFA, CPA), a global network, professional platform and technology, access to 100k+ current employees and even more alumni, a globally recognized name on your resume... who cares about the 1st year comp difference? You can always try to lateral later, or go back and get an MBA to break into IB but maybe you get on a track at the Big 4 and want to stay. You would be absolutely insane to stick it out in a tiny unknown group that you don't fit in at.
The only reason I changed jobs is because I was moving countries and it was my last chance to go to B-School before becoming practically too old, and thought I might as well try for BB banking. Could have easily stayed in Big 4 and would have been happy as well.
Wow that's great input man. Definitely make some good points and has gotten me thinking about steps ahead. I appreciate it!
Happy to hear more feedback from others...
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