Given that you have Associate offers from two comparable MM M&A shops in the same city. If all else is held equal, and the only difference is that one is headquarters for that firm (~100 front office employees) and the other is a satellite office (~10 front office employees), which one would you choose? I can see benefits and downsides of each situation.
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HQ and that should be final. I don't know why you would even consider the satellite office. That office is there for cost-cutting and "trying" to cover more ground.
Unless the satellite office is KILLING IT you want to be in HQ
In an effort to put some context around this, lets say the city is Chicago and its either Houlihan Lokey or William Blair, is the consensus Blair? What if it were Lincoln compared to Houlihan?
Analyst/Associate outside of major cities? (Originally Posted: 05/05/2014)
Do any firms offer positions at locations outside of official headquarters and major cities? For example, there is a T. Rowe Price and Chase building in my town. The TRP is a designated Investor Center, while the Chase building hosts various activities. I was not able to find a job application online as analyst or associate at the given locations for the past three months.
If I were to go to their New York offices and receive a job offer as an analyst, do you think I can request a transfer to my town office?
I apologize if my question is poorly worded or newbie...
Curious about this as well - I'm in a similar situation.
Experience at satellite offices (Originally Posted: 10/25/2009)
This question is meant for middle market banks/boutiques who have small satellite offices. I understand that at a BB the experience is vaguely the same.
I interned at a satellite office of a bank and what I didn't like about it was that our team was really small (2 analysts) and that communication between offices wasn't very good and weren't able to outsource anythings to HQ. Ended up working 100+ hours even though deal flow wasn't very good.
I now have an offer with a different middle market bank (think HW) for their main office (not NYC). I love the bank, but their offices are not in one of the traditional finance cities and I see difficulties for when interviewing for PE or trying to lateral over to BB. They have a satellite office that is in a city where I could do all that and I bet the night life would be a whole lot better.
Now I am asking you for what you think about working at a satellite office of a middle market bank that is rather top heavy and has only ~3 analysts.
The way I see it:
Pro's Night life Exposure to senior people Better networking ops
Con's Road less travelled Less industry groups Peer group smaller
Feel free to add anything.
When we recruit bankers, we don't care what office they worked in, we care about the experience they received. Now, you may get less deal exposure from a satellite office and therefore indirectly have fewer exit ops, but it is certainly not a function of your geographic location. If you think you can get a solid experience while working at one of their satellites, go for it.
One thing you do want to note though is that banks -really- don't like it if you tell them you don't want to work in the office they placed you at. In fact, you'll likely have to go back and RE-interview with the office you're interested in before they hand you an offer at that office.
Deal flow is no issue at all. This satellite office is busy. I am more worried about the issue that I will only work with 2-3 other analysts and might get bored. Also I felt that bigger office might equal better learning experience because you have more people that you can talk to every day.
I am going through the process of choosing offices so I haven't stated a preference yet and they decided to let me choose the office I want to work at.
I am currently working in an almost identical situation (MM small satellite office). It seems you already have a grip on the pros and cons as you outlined. Your experience will be much more enjoyable if you really want to be a part of the office/city you choose. Also, take another look at your con list: A smaller support base and being different. It may sound intimidating to join a smaller group, but I think even the short list of three pros outweigh the fear of taking the road less traveled.
Working at a satellite can be great if you have a reason for working in a particular city and you really like the people you will be working with. However, it's probably the wrong decision if you don't already have friends/family in that city. As for deal flow, it can be more variable in a small office if it is industry-focused. You might get crushed if times are good in the industry, but if things aren't great, it might be slow and it's not likely you'll be staffed on a deal at the home office from your satellite location.
Thanks for your input. I'll move ahead and join the satellite.
Satellite office (Originally Posted: 03/17/2007)
The nicest thing about being in a satellite office (aside from the same absolute pay with lower cost of living):
Free group trips. At my bank the Chicago office analyst class takes a bi-yearly trip to Vegas (associates pay!!). The SF office just took a weekend ski trip. And the LA office just went to Vegas.
Oh, and it's snowing in New York.
How many days off do you get for the Vegas trip?
Why don't the NYC classes get to go on trips? Is it because the classes are too big?
Nothing to do with the classes being to big.. simply put, NY has more deals to work on therefore no analyst/assoc/vp can afford to take off at one time to go to "vegas" or on a ski trip.. it may be snowing in NYC, come bonus time the same can be said
No. It's not that at all. It's simply that logistically speaking it's too hard to do an NY analyst trip (it would also cripple the bank for the weekend). Bonuses are the same for the regionals. The bank I work at is #1/#2 in Chicago and LA and the SF office is very respectable as well, so deal flow or bonuses is not the issue.
I still think the associates in each group should let us take a group junior banker class trip...and pay for it.
Haha, why make the associates pay, when MDs make 10x what they do..
The MD's all kick in money for whatever else we do.
these trips would be morale booster
Banks send their 2nd tier people to the satellite offices as they are usually people who cannot cut it at Headquarters. GS NYC is a whole different breed of people compared to GS San Fran
That is absolutely false, as regional offices usually do their own hiring.
So you're saying Moelis couldn't hack it at UBS NYC and therefore was sent packing to LA? The analysts in LA are much better on average than UBS NYC. The same can be said for CS/MS in SF and Menlo Park. The MD's bring in many more deals than their counterparts in NYC.
Where are you getting your information from? Do you even work in the industry or have an offer yet?
I see that people have already come down on this statement, but I feel I have to add that this is one of the most blatantly false statements I have seen on this message board. Generally speaking (generally, but not always), it is more competitive to get an analyst spot in a satellite office than NYC, as Chicago/SF/LA will take a maximum of ten analysts on full time compared to the 80-100 some banks take in NYC. UBS/CS LA are the obvious examples here, but the same can be said for many others as well.
And at all the banks I interviewed at with the exception of ML, even first round interviews were conducted separately by the firms' NYC offices and their SF/PA/MP/LA offices.
The amount of misinformation on this board is overwhelming. I think the opposite is true. For example in my firm's Chicago office, they do their own recruiting and send good candidates who they feel don't fit in with the culture to NY...
Game Theory, you work for CS, don't you? ;)
Is this guy joking or what? Sure, the culture is definately different over in SF, but calling them 2nd tier people? WTF?
Im not even in college yet, but when I graduate, I plan on working at a bank in SF. So when Im in college trying to get an internship or an offer from a bank, would I just apply to the SF branch or how does that work?
Since you're not even in college yet, I wouldn't worry about this just now. Focus on your grades, extracurricular stuff at school, and getting some quality internship experiences (doesn't have to be IB) at any location.
Eventually when you start looking for summer analyst positions - it's not like applying to a Chase bank "branch". If you go to a school which that particular bank's SF office targets, your school will have interviews directly with them, which you apply for. Otherwise, read my last post about going through the general/NY interviews and then branching off to final rounds at the regional office. It seems like aspiring might have had a different experience with GS SF, but I think that's the exception.
If you don't go to a school that is targeted at all by the bank, you kind of have to make it happen through your own wits and networking.
Most importantly, enjoy being in college but do a good job in class for now.
If you're set on working in SF, you should apply for Bay Area universities, LA universities, and other West Coast colleges in that order (of course, targets over non-targets.) Recruiters from BBs will come to the target school to primarily recruit for their regional office, but you can also request New York and will have to interview there for at least one round. You'll generally apply for the bank through your campus recruitment/resume drop and specify your location preference on their website, cover letter, and/or interview.
Depending on the BB, most will have on-campus interview for target schools and they primarily send members from their regional offices.
Well since my school is in Texas, McCombs b-school at UT Austin, I doubt any Bay Area offices would send recruiters there. So I guess I will do what u just said, specify my preference in location in the interview or on the cover letter.
If all else fails, it looks like Im going job hunting in SF.
And from the wise words of Dwight Schrute: "Nothing is on my horizon...except for everything."
If you can find alumni from your school or get into contact with the recruiters from the Bay Area, they'll help you out. There's actually more Texas people in the Bay Area than you'll expect.
I thnk you're going to a target school, so just be sure to mention you're interested in the Bay Area when you apply. More than likely they'll fly you out to SF or whatever for the second round and beyond.
Thanks for answering my questions.
Deal Execution in Satellite Offices (i.e. non-NYC) (Originally Posted: 04/26/2016)
I'm going to start as an investment banker in a non-NY office (think Chicago, Los Angeles, Houston, San Francisco).
I want to better understand how deals within these satellite offices are executed.
1. Are these deals entirely (~100%) done entirely out of the satellite office with no intervention from NY? 2. Are these deals mostly (~50-75%) done entirely out of the satellite office with no intervention from NY? 3. Are these deals partially (~25-50%) done entirely out of the satellite office with no intervention from NY? 4. Are these deals rarely (~0-25%) done entirely out of the satellite office with no intervention from NY?
Also wondering how this varies between MM, BB, EB
I'm wondering because I'm trying to figure out how important it is from an skills+experiences perspective to be in NY vs. being in a satellite office. From what I understand, being a banker in satellite office = being a banker in NY and the difference in deal execution between NY/satellite office won't affect your skills+experiences you develop as a banker (which in terms means you'll be just as attractive to an employer coming out of IB regardless of the city).
Any perspectives on this would be very appreciated!!
It varies literally office by office, firm by firm, group by group. The general statement that work is typically executed in NYC has almost no real bearing when so many exceptions abound. For example, MS executes most of their west coast M&A deals out of LA, not NYC or SF with the exception of tech deals which are done almost primarily out of Menlo.
Thanks. Unless you find out during recruiting (which I doubt you really will), I guess the only way to know for sure is to join the office and see how it goes?
There are certain groups in my firm that I would not want to be at a satellite office for, while others I would totally be fine with. Like everyone else said, totally depends.
from what i've seen and experienced, EB's do all execution out of their regional offices (probably has something to do with the fact that all m&a is done out of coverage groups).
Satellite Offices Opportunities (Originally Posted: 09/22/2016)
I'm at a JPM/MS satellite office outside of NY/SF. Will I still be contacted by headhunters for opportunities at NY or SF? Interested if exit opportunities are somewhat similar for top banks in other locations. Not aiming for MFs, but more upper MM and HFs.
Interested how the process works since I won't be in a major city to meet HHs in person or attend information session for PE/HFs. How should I go about the process if I do want to move to another location after my analyst program is done.
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I typically hate head hunters, but there are some out there willing to work with you to place you in a big city and will Facetime/Skype interview you to clear you and then you can go from there.
I think it would be better though if you network and/or find the hiring manager and contact them directly.
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