Offer Advice.... HW or HL
All,
I'm looking for outside thoughts on my decision for a full time (1st yr) analyst position between Harris Williams-Richmond and Houlihan Lokey (corp fin)-Chicago to start next June/July. Pay is almost identical and I like the people at both shops. Basically I'm wondering which one I can expect to have a better experience at (i.e. more deal flow and responsibility). Also, I'm less concerned with exit ops and the whole "going to bat" thing for HW... I actually think I want to make a career out of banking after really enjoying my summer at another MM shop (RWB/Edgeview/LMM/McColl/WB/Lincoln where I got an offer, but wanted a change).
Thanks in advance for the input and thoughts.
No brainer, go to HW and work with BMo as much is possible. Straight up the man.
Used to work at another HL office (recently jumped to a BB) and know a bit about the Chicago corp fin practice. Do you know which group you'd get placed into (i.e. CFR, Industrials, HC)? I know the CFR group is pretty decent and does some interesting deals. The Industrials group is also good. I'd also say that HL carries more weight in the industry, especially on the West Coast. One thing I will say is that you gotta like sellsides if you work in HL CorpFin - they do a lot of em. You leaning a certain way at this point?
This is a difficult choice. I'd tend to think that Harris Williams is the safer bet. You're guaranteed to have great dealflow, very high levels of responsibility (for an analyst), and to work almost exclusively on executing sell-side M&A transactions. From your list of names that you summered at, the Harris Williams experience is most akin to Edgeview or McColl. On the other hand, Houlihan Lokey is undoubtedly one of the most well respected names in the middle market. Houlihan Lokey tends to favor a highly analytical approach, so expect to make more use of your raw accounting / finance skills there. Given Houlihan Lokey is far more full-service than Harris Williams, there is a greater risk that you'll be working on Fairness Opinions, PIPEs, IPOs, or other activities that are usually less attractive than straight M&A. At the end of the day, you can't go wrong with either shop, so don't regret your choice once you make it.
Respectfully have to disagree with a point here/point something out:
HL doesnt do IPOs first of all. Second, HL has 3 divisions really. FAS (financial advisory services), Corp Fin (traditional M&A/advisory/capital markets) and RX. theres no 'risk' of doing fairness opinions as if you are in corp fin arm, fairness opinions are only placed in the FAS group (thats what they do 90% of the time, fairness advisory)
But yes, HW will prob give you more M&A exposure since HL has industry verticals and a separate M&A product team so if you are not in M&A group, you can end up doing a lot of industry vertical pitching when the M&A group just takes over once the mandate has been won.
Thanks for the thoughts guys... I like HW for the M&A focus, but HL talked up their ability to staff people on distress M&A deals from the restructuring side during the downturn, which they argue makes them more stable should the economy take a shit again. Both are great shops though and I realize how fortunate I am to have this problem... it's going to be a hard decision.
Well, if you're going to be in banking in the long run, you can't go wrong with either shops. But is HW in Richmond Virginia? I would choose HL for the sake of being in the city.
CompBanker doesn't know what he's talking about. Houlihan's FAS group does all the fairness opinions - you wouldn't be working on those in CorpFin. HL has a tiny ECM practice that sits in NY that does most of the work for IPOs and follow ons, and they don't have great deal flow at all. The CorpFin practice does 90% sellsides, which entails a whole lot of admin work - tracking buyers, writing memorandums, making mgmt presentations etc., with very little analysis involved (in my experience). If this sounds attractive to you, then go with HL because you will do a ton of M&A sellsides and you'll likely do a good amount of deals. Sure HW has a fair amount of sellsides as well but if the mix between buyside/sellside/equity and debt deals is more distributed, they may be the better choice.
And happypantsmcgee absolutely knows what he's talking about.
Regards
Richmond doesn't bother me much - I'm from the mid atlantic originally, but yes, Chicago would be cool to be in a city.
Are you sure about HW? I thought almost everything they worked on was sell side M&A
Have you spent much time in each city? If not, I think you'd probably much rather be in Chicago. Especially since your free time will be limited, you may want to be in a city that offers more stuff to do in your down time.
Out of curiosity, did you get these offers from accelerated interviews? If so, would you mind PM'ing me so I can ask one or two Qs?
Thanks
If you are truly torn between the two banks, consider using geography as your deciding factor. Richmond is very different from Chicago and both have their pluses and minuses. You will undoubtedly be working around the clock at either but nightlife/weather/cost/people will still influence your quality of life.
Haha CompBanker, I'm not suggesting that the OP choose Houlihan, I'm just trying to give the guy an accurate representation of what to expect. It wasn't for me, so I bounced (BB>any MM, IMO). OP, any chance you could shop your offer to land a BB opening? If this is at all possible, I would HIGHLY suggest you do it. But, I'm just an islandbanker, so what the hell do I know?
Haha... I appreciate hearing both sides of the debate. For me, I had offers to join Citi/MS as a SA for 2011, but turned them down for my MM experience. It was mainly a function of hating NYC and wanting to work in the MM. I also know several guys that worked sell side in the MM and then went buy side to MM funds (firms like Audax/Platinum/Falconhead, although not necessarily those funds), and they all thought the transition was easier than their BB counterparts, mainly because they dealt with them very frequently (or at least your senior bankers did).
All that aside, I'm still very torn between HW and HL, but it is reassuring to know that on a reputational basis the firms are this close (which means I might decide based on geography, as I can't really go wrong). Thanks again guys.
Curious to know what you picked! How is it going?
^i've heard HL do 4 info sessions and made it to 2 superdays (alas, no offer from them) for their west coast offices, that i know their operation structure/business model fairly well hahaa..
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