Should I Leave My Corp Dev Job To Equity Research If My Long Term Career Goal Is Private Equity/ IB ?

Hi, I'm currently doing an internship in Corp Dev & Strategy at a large tech company. Previously, worked in investment banking at a local boutique and in asset management. Recently, got an offer from an equity research position from a BB. Should I quit my current corp dev job to ER just for the brand name ? I want to be in Private equity in the long time. Thanks!

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Given your options, I would stick with Corp Dev over ER. ER is great if you want to do public markets or stock investing but you don't get deal experience, and PE REALLY cares about deal experience. My hunch is that you'd get better exposure of that in the Corp Dev role.

As a person who went from ER to private markets, I can say that the brand name helps in getting noticed but most roles I was passed along were in IR or hedge funds and almost never VC or PE which was what I really wanted. I'd argue it's easier to construct a better story of "why PE" through corp dev and strategy than ER.

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