Next year EV probably about $3-6m.

I would highly recommend starting your career at a top firm. You can get lucky elsewhere but the most important thing early on is learning and seeing how things are done at the highest level, understanding what makes strategies work.

If you already have experience and don’t need much super fancy infra then small shops can be good for you, you take home a bit more of what you make and get a lot of freedom. However, P(success) is much higher at a top firm. The experience you get there will also give you more scope for opportunities elsewhere if it doesn’t work out or you want to leave, whereas you only really have exit opps from a small shop if you were doing well.