Harris Williams, William Blair or Baird?
Which investment bank between HW, RW Baird or W Blair is stronger in M&A? Transaction volume and deal value? How do they measure in pay and exits?
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LITERALLY THE SAME
Blair
HW for the best buy side exits.
Second this. They are know for almost exclusively doing sell-side to PE deals.
I don’t know why people always bring this up on this board. They all mostly just do sponsor sell-sides. Yeah Blair and Baird have ECM capabilities but it’s a very small portion of the business.
Coverage group matters. Can you be more specific?
Coverage group matters, likely places at each have great groups that do deal values above the bank average and are held in higher esteem.
WB tech or Healthcare are UMM in terms of transactions, just go to their website. In this new era, deal value and volume is likely lower everywhere, but the tech and healthcare groups at WB give you pretty great options.
Since most funds are tech or healthcare focused, I would argue WB is likely going to be more well known than the others for many places you would go. No tech invester who touches companies from $200m - $5B isn’t aware of the prominence of WB, saying that as someone who invests in tech.
That said, I do know they laid off like 1/3 their staff and deal volumes are way lower in tech and IB in general, so pay is likely worse than it was, but rep is still there.
Blair for tech, Baird for industrials and gov/defense, HW for HC, HW and Blair for consumer
Real WSO OGs will tell you how HW goes to bat for their analysts.
I know Baird industrials is really good. But how does WB and HW industrials compare to Baird?
Worked at a MM and now in PE -
Purely for exits, I’d lean Blair. Reputationally it’s the best - there might be exceptions for certain groups, but generally speaking the Blair brand is slightly stronger.
You’d be hard pressed to find a single UMM exit from HW or Baird and I personally know a handful from WB.
People really hype up the HW “supportive recruiting” which is valid, but from what I’ve seen this is just the MD helping analysts get job at random MM PE firms (which anyone from Baird or Blair could interview ar just the same). The HW MD isn’t bypassing the headhunter process at a reputable MM or UMM fund, so it really only helps at smaller shops.
For analyst experience I’d take HW though - best WLB, probably best culture, and best pay (at least last year(
HW having any sort of WLB is news to me…. esp HC and consumer….
What are hours like?
Any idea about Blair exits related to private credit?
Harris Williams Blaird
Up
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Harriss Williams in VA known to be sweaty af. Would factor that into consideration.
What group isn’t these days? Tell me so I can apply
every group is in IB, most definitely. HW in Richmond, I've heard, is next level sweaty though.
Would go HW - Richmond is cheap to live, and all 3 going to work you hard. All good firms. Baird and Blair guys work til 2 am also….and HW consistently pays the most. 200k goes a long way in Richmond vs. Chicago and cold Milwaukee.
You must really hate yourself to choose to live in Richmond.
William Blair is clear
Blair lags now. They laid off 1/3 of their staff, just lost their head of HC to Baird this week, 3 of their best TMT MDs to Gugg a few months ago, and one of their top consumer MDs to Solomon a few weeks ago. It’s a sinking ship.
Not to point fingers, but this has all happened since they appointed a new head of IB 2 years ago…
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