I was wondering which offers you would choose to start your career and why if you can choose between:
- BB M&A
- mid size PE
- Top 3 Oil company Finance position
- MBB consulting
This is not a hypothetical question, hence really wonder what you will choose to start your career based on career growth, satisfaction at work, prestige etc… Its not so straight forward as it looks.
The geographical location doesn't really matter for me I think, its all somewhere in the USA.
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1 or 4, depending on what exactly you want to do with your life.
BB M&A can lead to PE and Corp Fin, but you can't easily do it the other way around.
It's obvious that if you can't make this decision yourself, you should start your career in a position that leaves the most options open.
cut the crap, nobody on this board is going to pick #3.
I would pick MBB consulting hands down. From a personal growth perspective, I genuinely believe you learn more in consulting than in banking.
Not to say BB M&A isn't one of the best places to start, I think consulting has a slight edge.
The real questions here: A.) What do you want to be doing in the next 3-5 years? B.) How important is it to you to be making good amounts of money from year 1? Student debt, etc? C.) How much to you value free time in your 20s, and is your answer to that question in line with your answer to questions A & B?
Thanks guys, @Consuming Goods to answer the questions:
A) Diverse and meaningful work in Finance with a bit of strategy involved. Needs to be quantitative, as I have a technical background, and I need to see what the result is of my work. For me all the 4 picks sound very interesting and find it very hard to decide. I have a little bit the feeling that I can always do PE and Corporate afterwards, which is why MBB would be a good pick. However, why not going straight to PE or Corporate now when this is possible? I hear from too many people that you learn a lot about yourself at a MBB and that that is very valuable, but know nothing about a specific area. Making your work less important and even sometimes being annoying for clients, as you have no real area of expertise and are more there as a political instrument. Which is why BB M&A could be good, as this is more specific work, but am afraid its less intellectually satisfying and more grunt work.
B) Short term salary is not important. Long term salary is very important.
C) I value free time, but I value it more when it is efficient free time. Meaning an 10-12 hours of work per day ideally, where you have enough money to travel and do fun stuff in the weekends. Otherwise I have the feeling I am doing nothing with my life.
all jobs are grunt work when you first start. you're not going to be revolutionizing Porter's 5 Forces framework in consulting. You'll be making PPT decks with Harvey balls.
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Are you coming from undergrad or an MBA?
From your response to @ConsumingGoods it seems that your PE option would be your best bet, given that you want to do something quantitative in nature.
Undergrad, so its al analyst positions.
I think your best bet would be BB M&A to try to get to a larger PE firm. If you want something quantifiable, MBB won't be very fulfilling for you. Mid-size PE would address your immediate concerns, but if you gave BB M&A a shot, there's a better chance you can break into a larger PE thus opening up more doors in the future.
BB M&A or MBB, because both keep your options open more than anything else. M&A obviously opens doors to banking, PE, HF, Corp Fin, MBB (to a much lesser extent.) MBB opens consulting, PE, HF (to a much lesser extent), Corp Strategy, Corp Fin (to a lesser extent.) Both open up top MBA opportunities as well.
If I had to do it all over again, MBB.
It just sucks to be a banker, and I have 0 interest in HF's anyways. And unlike most of my colleagues, I want to go to grad school, which MBB not only pays for, but also has a strong edge in admissions.
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If you want to end up at a top PE shop I'd choose BB M&A assuming it's an upper to middle tear BB. The modeling skills you build in M&A (that transfer to PE) blow the modeling skills you build in MBB out of the water. Having said this you can't really go wrong with either opportunity. Congrats on the offers
Would straight going to a mid size PE not also give me the chance to go to a top PE shop? I am talking about a mid size PE with 10-15 billion in market cap.
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