Work Culture
Curious to know people' respective ideal work environments, in and out of the office! What does the ideal scenario look like for you? ie. more serious in the office vs. more casual culture, social events outside of work, etc.
I believe the concept of an office is an extremely non-ideal setting for a human being to spend any considerable amount of time. I think something like a trading floor could actually be very conducive to health for a male. But the typical humdrum office environment will give you cancer.
I feel very lucky to say my current job is my ideal work culture. I literally just talked about it in another post. Early fridays, horizontal hierarchy, very easy and almost expected to take vacation days, lax work hours, everyone is extremely competent, no politics, team based environment. I can go on and on. The best part? We’re highly efficient and getting superb deals done all the time. We’re one of the top performing teams in the company which is national.
I feel like I’ve kinda had it coming though. My last job was a total sweatshop and I worked there for years which allowed me to get this great job. I always used to say about my last job it could be a Harvard case study on bad management. Now I say this job could be a Harvard case study on good management.
do you think the environment would vary for people depending on if they're in their 20's versus their 30's? Or any age for that matter?
No, I'm in my 20's and we have people in their 30's and 40's on the team. It's the same for everyone but of course there comes more leeway with title.
importance of the people/atmosphere? (Originally Posted: 01/21/2007)
How much should one take into account how much they like the people and atmosphere of a bank when deciding on who to sign with? Should you still sign with a bank that may be a place or two above another if you think the people where total dicks? Specifically talking about top BBs.
it's all about the people / work experience you want to have. Ie. if you like Sponsors work and get a MS Sponsors offer take it over GS TMT. Atleast I would, I'm sure others would chose based on pure name.
If you are talking top BB - it's win-win.
Its two very long years of your life...you want to be sure you get along with your group. If not, your life could (and probably will) be completely miserable.
If its for a summer internship, I might take the better BB just so I'd have more options at the end of the summer.
Disclaimer- I turned down a MS offer for another BB offer strictly because of group culture (MS wasn't bad, just the group I'm in now was a perfect fit).
Culture is so so so important... if you're a strong candidate and have bargaining power, consider this seriously
there is nothing more important
all else being comparable, culture should be the deciding factor.
culture and fit are extremely important. The real question, though, is how do you know what the fit is going to be? If you go to a target school, you likely meet a few bankers during recruiting, probably several who are alumni of your school. Then, maybe you meet a couple more at informationals, maybe one or two more during interviews, and then a few on a sell day if you get an offer. So, all told, you are lucky if you've met 20 bankers by the time you have to accept an offer, and you have probably only met people in your group on the sell day visit. You're making a career decision now, with very little information, I'm just not sure how much of the culture one can absorb with those limited contacts. I'm definitely open to other opinions, though.
Thoughts?
Edit: One last thing - just my opinion - for your internship, you should overlook culture and take the most prestigious job you can get. Culture can decide between relative equals (say you have an offer from ML and Leh) but, you should NEVER take a Wachovia summer over a MS summer just because you like the people at Wach better - a move like that tells people you don't know the first thing about the world of finance.
Work Environment (Originally Posted: 06/21/2014)
I'm currently interning in my first position at a HF and just have a question about the work environment for people with more experience. It's a medium sized L/S equity fund, 10 full time people including back office staff, and the office is basically a wide open bullpen. Occasionally there will be discussions about investments or recent events but 90% of the time the office is pretty much silent. Is this normal? It makes sense because doing research is quiet but it still feels strange to me coming from a work environment where there was constant noise and interaction. I have no frame of reference for comparison so I'm just wondering if this is standard across the industry.
It is hard to make the adjustment. I've never worked in the military so I have no idea what its like (thanks for your service by the way), but coming out of school it was weird getting used to never talking to anyone. My first internship I thought I was going to go crazy. Over time I came to appreciate that there was no pointless meetings, you could focus on your work, etc.
differs firm to firm based on how the people running the place like it. I have worked on quiet floors and very raucous, loud floors.
Floor Atmosphere (Originally Posted: 06/25/2015)
what is the floor atmosphere like at a BB? Is it tense? Loud? Quiet? What about as you progress through the day and into the night? Does it get more lax? Looking to get a good sense of the atmosphere on a typical IBD floor.
What do you mean a "floor"? Analysts work in cubicles, which is often referred as the "bullpen". This is not trading.
Sil I realize that. You do still sit on a floor though. So what is the atmosphere of the entire floor.
It ranges a ton from BB to BB, and from division to division. At my BB capital markets has the energy (and chaos) of a trading floor with telephones going off all the time. M&A and LevFin are more quiet and calm at my BB. Still, the senior area of the floor has MD's on the phone going "HEY BUD WHAT'S UP" occassionally whereas the analysts are mostly just working on their assignments. Your question is so broad as to be useless, though.
Curious about this too.
Looking for a specific culture (Originally Posted: 10/15/2016)
Gents, I've been job hopping too much in the REIT and REPE world. Enjoy both, but prefer REPE since it's less operational. I'm looking for a specific kind of culture. Structured, professional and studious. A place where people worry less about "golf" and more about work. Not saying that socializing doesn't matter because it does, but just prefer to be in a place that focuses on work first. That would be ideal for me. Any shops come to mind? Kind of an awkward thing to ask, but there you have it.
Any of the distressed funds would work for you. They will grind you down to the bone and there won't be a lot golf or life at all really. Fortress, Lone Star, Rialto or Starwood should do the trick. Good luck and Godspeed.
What do you mean by "less operational" exactly?
Further away from the day to day operations of the property
dressing according to culture (Originally Posted: 12/18/2011)
can you monkeys provide some examples of more formal vs less formal and fitting into the culture when you're dressing for interviews? (in nyc main offices)
also what examples of what typical east coast people wear vs more laid back offices - assuming you've still got to dress up, not biz casual?
if you're talking about job interviews, I would suit up regardless of culture.
For job interviews, it shouldn't vary depending on what office your interviewing for..
Standard, conservative business formal.
navy/charcoal suit, blue/white shirt, tie, and done.
which type of interview are you interested? cultural or professional?
Standardized conservative uniformity across the entire industry: "laid back" is not having a tie and jacket on at 11PM. Otherwise, dress to kill. You will be judged on every detail.
...and them's the rules.
suit up even on the west coast
where ever yuo are, wearing a suit is always a good option.
I don't know about you guy/gals but I feel much better in a suit
IB Career Environment (Originally Posted: 07/05/2014)
I was reading this article on CNBC via NYT.
http://www.cnbc.com/id/101813891
Have career opportunities significantly improved in I-Banking? I am a non-trad candidate considering a career switch from healthcare related field to finance. I have been thinking about this for a while and up until recently it seemed that opportunities in Finance were fairly limited as banks continued to slash jobs. Nowadays, it seems that is mostly limited to Trading, so has the job market turned for the rest of I-banking segments?
I am 26 so age is worrisome, not from my end, but the perspective of a firm. My college GPA is 3.9+ and included taking advanced Finance courses and I did quite well in those. I am from a school targeted by banks in Canada. My Bachelor's degree, however, was not in Business. What would be a good path for me to make the career switch. MBA or MFin?
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