EY-Parthenon offer: ex-Citi banker told me it's a career killer for London BB. Is she right?

Question

Hi everyone,

I'd appreciate some honest perspectives on a career decision I'm currently weighing.

Background: I'm a student about to start a 2-year MSc in Financial Engineering this September. I already have M&A internship experience at a boutique advisory firm. I've received an offer from EY-Parthenon Corporate Finance (Valuation & Modelling) for a 4-month internship during the second semester of my first master year.

My end-goal is bulge bracket IB or front-office asset management in London.

The dilemma: I recently spoke with a former Citi IBD banker who told me that EY-Parthenon, while solid work, tends to be looked down upon by BB recruiters in London - essentially seen as a step below the firms they typically recruit from. This surprised me, as I had considered it a strong stepping stone.

This made me consider an alternative path: targeting a Quantitative Research internship at an asset manager during that same period, and then leveraging both the quant profile from my master's and that AM experience to apply to firms like GSAM in the summer of my first master year.

My questions:

1. How accurate is the perception that EY-Parthenon V&M is "looked down upon" by London BB IB recruiters? Is this a real barrier or more of a generalisation?

2. For someone with my profile (financial engineering + boutique M&A + quant AM), would the GSAM / quant AM route be a stronger long-term play than the EY-Parthenon path?

3. Has anyone here made the transition from Big 4 valuation or mid-tier AM into BB IB or top-tier AM in London? What actually moved the needle?

Happy to provide more context if needed. Thanks in advance for any insights.

Answer 1

Hey anonymous,

I think that generalization might be true for only some recruiters, and that it is generally overblown. EYP Valuation is a real offer and the City does recruit also from there: if you are unsure, you can test your hypothesis with some Linkedin research. More importantly, iiuc, this is a first year internship, so it does not lock you out of a top-IB summer internship the year after. I would encourage to consider whether the "EYP or top-IB" framing is a correct dichotomy :)

That said, I agree that the quant route is probably the stronger play for your specific profile. FinEng master plus boutique M&A plus a quant research seat is a much rarer combo. My point here is that the differentiation is doing most of the work here, not the brand of the firm.

Finally, a small piece of advice: please, factor in what you actually want to do in your life. If your gut says M&A, take EYP, build the modelling reps, and go hard for the IB summer while keeping other doors open (e.g., Corp M&A). If the quant side of the master genuinely excites you, the Quant Asset Manager route is more coherent and probably opens doors EYP would not.

Hope this helps,

Tom