Offer exploding tomorrow, need to make a decision ASAP
(Chimp, 8
Points)
on 2/13/11 at 9:36pm
Barcap, BAML M&A and Lazard which explodes tomorrow, and I'm waiting to hear back from GS - they should have gotten back to me by now since they know about the offer but my super day was only Friday.
I keep hearing the horror stories about LAZ and am now freaking out.. also I'm a girl and haven't seen many of those at LAZ, not that I really care but I'm afraid it might be telling.
Any help would be much appreciated..





banks dont work on weekends,
banks dont work on weekends, so you will most likely hear back from GS tomorrow.
LAZ if you could handle the
LAZ if you could handle the hours otherwise BAML M&A
I know but it's very
I know but it's very competitive, so I'm trying to make a decision assuming I won't get it
You should take Laz...
You should take Laz...
take lazard...unless you
take lazard...unless you believe girls can't handle the hours
Going against the grain here,
Going against the grain here, but I'm going to give you young monkeys some advice: do not take exploding offers. It is a slimy practice and you will want nothing to do with a firm that pulls such crap. At the end of your SA stint they will pull even slimier crap because they think they own you and will obstruct, in ways you do not see, your FT recruiting.
Have confidence that if you can get an offer at A, you will get one at B. I know how tightly wound you are about getting any offer, but relax and don't underplay your hand.
Mark this post: you will regret not following this advice.
I've been there.
leveRAGE. wrote: banks dont
banks dont work on weekends
What
HR might not
HR might not
mmmmmbrown wrote: HR might
HR might not
Right, yes, this is what I was going for--you generally won't get notified of results on a weekend.
ivoteforthatguy wrote: Going
Going against the grain here, but I'm going to give you young monkeys some advice: do not take exploding offers. It is a slimy practice and you will want nothing to do with a firm that pulls such crap. At the end of your SA stint they will pull even slimier crap because they think they own you and will obstruct, in ways you do not see, your FT recruiting.
Have confidence that if you can get an offer at A, you will get one at B. I know how tightly wound you are about getting any offer, but relax and don't underplay your hand.
Mark this post: you will regret not following this advice.
I've been there.
who extends offers that don't explode these days?? when i was a junior i had 5 offers and they all had exploding deadlines which on average was 2 weeks
Agree you should ask HR to
Agree you should ask HR to let you wait to hear back from GS.
Otherwise of those three, I'd go Laz for sure. BAML M&A I've heard mixed things. Most of their engagements are balance sheet oriented.
Chris_Marlin
Going against the grain here, but I'm going to give you young monkeys some advice: do not take exploding offers. It is a slimy practice and you will want nothing to do with a firm that pulls such crap. At the end of your SA stint they will pull even slimier crap because they think they own you and will obstruct, in ways you do not see, your FT recruiting.
Have confidence that if you can get an offer at A, you will get one at B. I know how tightly wound you are about getting any offer, but relax and don't underplay your hand.
Mark this post: you will regret not following this advice.
I've been there.
who extends offers that don't explode these days?? when i was a junior i had 5 offers and they all had exploding deadlines which on average was 2 weeks
EOs were explicitly banned at several schools when I was recruiting -- firms would be banned from future access if they offered EOs. If this has changed since I was an undergrad, it's a loathsome development.
To be fair, offers aren't
To be fair, offers aren't 'exploding' if they give you two weeks to decide. Let's say you're on the other side of the table. You have to fill an SA scheme or graduate program, and whilst you want the very best talent possible, you also don't want to wait around for weeks to hear if some 20-year-old is going to take your offer. It's an entry-level offer--you don't get months to decide on it, and it's kind of ludicrous to think you should.
How many other kids can do the exact same job you will? LOADS. If you don't take the job, they still need to make a certain number of offers. It's like the college admissions process, but worse. Matriculation rates vary widely from year-to-year even at the top banks. Making offers to summer and full-time analysts and associates is probably the hardest thing HR does (in case you were wondering, HR's next most difficult task involves taking 3 hour lunches every day. That's right--every day. Even on days when they want to take only 2 1/2 hours...nope, they've got to go for the full 3. It's draining, and I feel for them).
In any case, unless you're a VP or above, I would never expect more than 2 weeks to decide on an offer. I am a second year associate, and just got an offer from a major competitor to move to a different country, and have to decide within a couple of weeks. It's not like they gave me a deadline, but I'm not going to take 2 weeks to decide either.
Anyway, call GS tomorrow. Ask them to call you by 3pm. If they haven't called by then, you need to call one of the other banks to accept (definitely Lazard). Worst case scenario: you reneg. To be fair, though, I'm not sure I would take GS over Lazard. GS isn't the same firm it was 10 years ago. The additional scrutiny it now faces will make it difficult for GS to operate in the way that made it so profitable. They did all of the same spurious shit they do now 20 years ago, but they were too small to be noticed. Now, my grandma knows the name 'Goldman Sachs.' They have become almost synonomous with greed, and they cannot get away with the same things they used to.
At any rate, there's no need to fret. You have three great offers. It's like choosing between an offer from all of the Ivies. Yeah--no one really wants to go to Brown, but it's not like anyone really shits on Brown (I mean, it's not Rutgers).
It wasn't 2 weeks, it was 4
It wasn't 2 weeks, it was 4 days in my case, but thanks all your comments are really helpful. I guess I'm just wondering if I can handle Lazard, I've always been a hard-working person but all the people that I meet haven't done all two years..
You should probably take into
You should probably take into consideration that the majority of people on this board have never worked in banking. Lazard is indeed very prestigious, as has been pointed out, but it is certainly not for everyone. If you know people at Lazard, you will know that they are mostly unhappy.
For someone to suggest you should take Lazard over GS makes no sense to me. Analysts at GS are generally content/happy, as opposed to their LAZ counterparts, and GS analysts enjoy no less prestige or exit opportunities.
As an analyst, I would take GS, then Barcap, then Lazard/BAML depending on your tolerance for that type of culture. I would argue that top performers at GS, Barcap and Lazard all have similar exit opportunities at the end of two years, with BAML only taking a slight slight discount.