A couple of names illustrate the phenomenon: Broadband Capital Management, a New York-based firm, is seeking an associate for its investment banking group; Tamburi & Associati, a major Italian corporate finance boutique, is on the look out for two junior analysts in Milan.

A spokesman for a US boutique says smaller firms offer advantages over working for banks: “There’s more exposure to deal flow. The role here is more hands on.”

Few boutiques have the resources to train graduates straight out of university, with the result that most prefer to hire people with a few years’ experience at an investment bank.

Claudio Berretti at Tamburi & Associati, says the firm is looking for one analyst with around 1.5 years’ investment banking experience, although the other could come straight from university and learn on the job. “We’d like people with the capacity to analyse companies either from a financial or business perspective,” he says.

Jim Nairn, a recruiter at the Cornell Partnership in London, says boutiques offer a better lifestyle, and sometimes even higher pay than the large investment banks. “Boutiques will often offer the same in base pay, plus a higher bonus,” he says, citing the example of a second year analyst who moved to boutique for a base salary of £45,000 ($79,000) and a bonus of 150%.

The danger of moving to a boutique, however, is that you might get stuck there for a while. Nairn says analysts often think twice about moving to a little known name. John Axworthy, a recruiter at the Charterhouse Partnership, says there’s often no going back from boutiques working on small deals worth £20m to £100m.

But if you work on larger deals, retracing your steps shouldn’t be a problem.