Hi everyone!! My first post around here, happy to have you guys and your knowledge.
So here is my situation: I wanted to enter M&A, I love the kind of work you do while advising companies buying, desinvesting, financing a LBO, finincing new adquisitions etc. I also love the money involve, though :P
However, I haven't had the opportunity to make it to a bank. While searching, and due to not having landed an offer and having recently graduated, I have had the opportunity to get these offers. My problem is I don't know which one would be better with the best career exit opps:
- Real Estate small boutique, specialized in my country. Hours are normal, but I don't think many opportunities to be made. Maybe to a small/medium PE firm that wants to invest in my country (european) or they have HQ in it? Maybe to a bank's IB RE department? I win little compared to what is considered normal, but I work normal hours.
- Restructuring in a big4. Right so this opportunity may seem bad for some of you, but in Europe the big 4 are bosses doing the restructuring (in fact this firm has done by large the biggest and most of the restructuring in the country). I will work 24/7.
- Industry M&A (waiting to see which) in a big4. But not "pure" M&A. So I'm not sure if this is much worse (I read recently it is mostly the same but specialized in an industry). I will work a little bit than normal hours though.
The thing is, I don't want to specialize right now. I don't know where my career path will led me in the future: I like corporate development as much as working at a HF or PE.
So can I get a little council of you? Is there a clear path to follow to make my cv more general? Are the hours in HF very different from those of PE? Can I move my career path with all three options the same way, or will they mostly specialize me in a sector? Also I'd like to know how is corporate development rather than PE/HF?
If I choose RE, will I be able to move from an small boutique to an international fund?
If I choose restructuring, can I move to a HF or to do leverage finance? Will I be able to switch after that?
If I choose the industry but find out i'd like to go to a PE, will I be able to make it? Or only in the industry I chose and have worked at?.
Maybe choose whatever and try to change to IB in say, 2-3 years?
I can imagine most of the answers will be that "it depends" on me but I'd really like to know your opinion on the different situations and which path will be "more advisable" so as to switch in the future. I really love the world of M&A, finance and even the debt. However I don't feel like I'd like to do the same thing throughout 30 years, but rather change around 8 or 10.
Thank you for everything!!!!