I am a long time lurker here, but usually never post.
Some background...
Grew up in Brazil and came to the United States for college. I did some finance, and other, internships here, had a lot of extracurricular leadership (President of two groups and board member of a third), honors, good grades, research, yada yada.
Initially I wanted to live here for the long term. Start in banking, move into PE, go to MBA for the network, and then back into PE onto the partner track. Maybe I could one become an entrepreneur or something else, but so far the track was Banking>PE>MBA>PE.
Currently...
My main goal right now is to be able to get into a top MBA program (HSW) and I am trying to decide the best path to get there.
I am into my 5th week of my summer internship at a great MM firm in the midwest (think HL/Piper/Lazard MM/Willian Blair), and while I am 95% sure I will get a FT offer, I am unsure if I would like to stay here. The reason is that while many people went to MM PE firms, I was not able to find anyone that was able to go to HSW or a PE Mega Fund and this worries me.
I am sure that if I go back to Brazil I could get a job at any Investment Banks (or any financial firms for that matter) there, because of the American Education and work experience here, both of which are extremely praised in South America.
My Dilemma...
Should I go to back to Brazil and try to do a "Boomerang" into HSW? Would working for Goldman Sachs, BTG Pactual or another firms/groups (feel free to suggest in the comments) in their Brazilian office be more advisable?
Outside of work, I think Brazil is a wonderful country, the only things I don't like there are the corruption, bad attitude towards work (too much playing and not much hard work as compared to the U.S., which means that I would probably learn less), and inequality. However, I believe I prefer the U.S. because it is a more developed country and the overall quality of life is better.
Lastly, IB in Brazil pays roughly 1/3 of what it pays in the U.S., because the Real (Brazilian Currency) is performing poorly due to many factors/problem that I believe won't be solved soon, which means that I would not be able to save as much for MBA or living abroad if I decide to do so in the future.
So WSO, should I pursue a MM Midwest career in the US or work for a top firm in Brazil?
