"A job at a mid-market boutique will exhaust you and kill your M&A career"

byEmma Toivonen

28 August 2025

2 minute read

I would like to offer some advice to anyone tempted to apply for a job in mid-market M&A.

Don't go there.

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Last year, I lost my job as an associate at a major US bank. It took me a while to get a new role, but no matter how desperate I became, I refused to take calls from any of the mid-market firms that wanted to hire me.

When you work in the mid-market, it's a volume game. The firms that focus on these deals are competing heavily with the Big Four. They charge low fees, so it's generally about doing a crazy amount of deals for very little gain. It's exhausting and from what I've seen there's very little job security. These firms fire people all the time, and they pay terrible severance packages.

You will also be stuck there. Once you've gone to a mid-market boutique, there's no going back. If you get fired from a major bank, you can usually get a job at another major bank. But once you have a mid-market boutique on your CV, major banks will be much more wary - particularly if that boutique then fires you, as it well might.

Resist, therefore. Wait until a big bank comes calling, even if it takes a while.

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AUTHOREmma Toivonen

Insider Comment

iB
iBrian
29 August 2025
Curious to know what it's like for "Linux Systems" type jobs. Anyone? I work in academia as one and find the salaries very enticing.
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TS
TS100
28 August 2025
This is what every recruiter will tell you. And it’s absolutely bollocks. I did a stint with mid-market firm after several years in bulge. Then after a while for various other reasons I wanted to return to bulge. Many recruiters demeaned me quoting “once you have done small-cap firm with no brand, no bulge will take you”. It was the most demoralising comment I could hear. I did end up pivoting back to bulge within 2 months of resigning. Get out of this perception. Use the learnings of mid-market to your advantage. Yes agree they do deals like throwing a dart all the time. Lots of volume, poor execution, high failure rates. But in the end a VP in mid/market does 10x more than a VP in bulge buried in reviewing pitch books while his director is the deal captain. If you are in mid-market even on a small M&A, you are driving the workstreams, you are facing the board or CFO many times, you are negotiating lock-box, you are talking to investors, you are doing a dual track alongside, you know more about corporate finance workstreams and the model than any bulge bracket VP who has an infrastructure of 5 others VPS, other ring fenced teams, loads of analysts , lawyers etc. The actual work they do can be dilutive in a bulge. I’m not saying it’s always like that. But just saying use the mid-market experience to your advantage. This year alone I have seen many mid-market veterans taking hot seats in bulge brackets after 20 year careers and vice-versa because guess what, the volumes / deal opportunities especially in countries like UK come from mid-market. Not every one is doing a BP Shell merger ! And don’t let any recruiter tell you that you don’t have a brand. Nothing matters- your experience and value add matters. Even if the deal is small. It’s a big tick in the box if as a VP you can testify that you can originate a 2mn fee deal, vs. a deck checker of a 15mn fee deal originated by layers above you. Use that to your advantage. good luck. Hang in there and focus on your career.
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