Investment banking vs Valuation

Hey guys,

I am just about to graduate from school and I am trying to figure out what job to accept. Ultimately, I would like to work at a MM IB firm within 2 years of graduation. I have two offers right now. One from a boutique investment bank and one from a pretty well known valuation company. Both job offers are on the west coast. Here is my dilemma. I would rather do investment banking as it is more interesting to me and I enjoy the job. However, I know that if I go to this valuation firm (think Duff, Houlihan, SRR) that I will probably be getting some good formal training. If I go to the boutique I will most likely be learning from my peers and teaching myself but I will also be getting the deal experience. If my main goal is to jump to a MM bank in a year or two, what qualities in a candidate do you guys think are most important? Deal experience, bigger brand name, formal excel training, valuation experience... etc?

 

This is a dumb statement but for sake of simplicity: If you want to get into IB, then you have to be in IB.

Take the IB offer if you want to lateral up to a MM in a few years, being on the outside looking in from Valuation makes the leap that much harder

26 Broadway where's your sense of humor?
 

Thanks for the replies guys. This is about an ~8-12 man shop. This is including anyone from an analyst to an MD. I was already leaning towards the boutique but the main thing I was thinking about was the training aspect. At the valuation firm where I have an offer (already accepted 6 months ago and would have to renege if I want to accept the IB job) does intense training where you end up being really fast in excel and obtain very good financial modeling skills. I guess I could train myself in excel by taking some BIWS courses if I do end up accepting the IB offer. When lateraling, would a MM IB or even BB IB really just want to see that you have been running deals, managing the process, and they don't care as much about how massive the company was that you sold? People here don't work absolutely crazy hours either, its really like ~8-7pm everyday. They are typically working with companies that have ~$3-$20MM in EBITDA so they are decent sized companies. I have heard of a fair amount of people lateraling from the valuation firm where I already accepted an offer to pretty big MM IBs so I know it would definitely be possible there. Also I am thinking about how at the IB there aren't many people at the lowest level so I would definitely miss the networking opportunities and the ability to meet a bunch of people my age of working at a valuation shop that has 5-15 analysts alone.

Thanks again!

 
Best Response

This will be an unpopular reply but why does everyone who has NEVER been in a valuation shop think that it would be way harder than a no-name boutique in terms of lateraling? I might be biased coming from a valuation background but I was able to make a jump just 6 months into the job, I did not have a problem landing interviews either for lateral positions. In my opinion, if the valuation firm you are talking about is HLHZ for example, that will carry you much further than a no-name low deal flow IB shop.

Also in valuation shops, you get a lot of exposure to modeling, granted that they might be for financial reporting purposes most of the time, the modeling skills you will be getting will be very beneficial (~85-90% of your time would be spent on modeling).

I hated the valuation job btw, and made it my mission to get into a decent IB gig from day one, but I just disagree with all the hate on this forum thrown at val groups and how much harder it is to lateral than a no-name IB. Do a quick linkedin search on the val group you got an offer to to see how many people made it to a reputable IB shop, then do the same for your boutique IB, that should give you a better picture. Happy to see counter arguments to my points by people who have actually done both.

 

if you wanna do investment banking later on in your junior year and FT then do investment banking now (pretty straight forward).. Especially since youre a freshman your experience doesnt matter much..

Just try to get exposed to the deal as much as possible and learn things yourself. be proactive and genuinely show interest and hard work to your associate.

this could be a good way to break into a more well known MM in your sophomore and hopefully something even better in your junior if your goal is BB/eliteboutique or MM

 

Boutique IB, money is irrelevant if you want to do IB in the future.

[quote]The HBS guys have MAD SWAGGER. They frequently wear their class jackets to boston bars, strutting and acting like they own the joint. They just ooze success, confidence, swagger, basically attributes of alpha males.[/quote]
 

Go for the IB. Unless you're in dire straits and can't possibly support yourself without the cash, the IB internship should be more in line with what you want to do.

Or, if you can swing it, try and do both.

 

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