I've got an interview coming up w/ Sagent in the next couple days for SA. My main background is in ER, with only a small stay at a boutique valuation firm, I'm wondering what stuff I should look over to prepare for the interview? What type of stuff do these guys do? I haven't had any interviews yet with a real i-bank, so I'm kind of wondering what type of stuff I should do to prep and what type of questions would be asked...Thanks in advance.
| +131 | Is my life over after not getting GS? | 32 | 2h | |
| +108 | BEING WHITEGIRL IS PARADISE | 20 | 45m | |
| +73 | Best IB group on the Street | 35 | 52m | |
| +65 | Thoughts and tips on how to speak like an investment banker. | 25 | 22h | |
| +58 | BIG FOUR ARE PARADISE | 15 | 21h | |
| +49 | Tell me one good reason why Jefferies isn’t going to be a top bank in the next 5 years | 23 | 14h | |
| +38 | UBS Outlook | 28 | 1d | |
| +35 | How to deal with egotistical team? | 6 | 3d | |
| +33 | Highest Paid Bankers in Toronto? | 51 | 19h | |
| +31 | Are you “less ambitious” for having long term goals outside of NYC | 13 | 4h |
Career Resources
Get instant access to lessons taught by experienced private equity pros and bulge bracket investment bankers including financial statement modeling, DCF, M&A, LBO, Comps and Excel Modeling.
Very small shop, would avoid and see if u got better offers elsewhere. Never seen them or worked with them much. Prepare same accounting sheet b.s. as other places.
I'm not sure how the SA interview process goes, but I interviewed with them for FT...first-round interview was over the phone and very technical, and the superday interviews were mostly behavioral...the technical questions were very basic, all stuff that you can memorize easily from vault guide, websites, etc.
Also interviewed with them for FT. It was almost all technical questions with the exception to work experience (especially if it's previous banking experience). The technical questions were not that hard and a review of the accounting statements (all three in some detail) should be good. I also had a brainteaser, so be prepared for those if they decide to ask.
Are they very selective? Almost every profile on their New York office is summa/magna at Harvard, etc (the weaker profiles are all north carolina office from wachovia)
i randomly clicked on three profiles and saw ohio state, indiana, and washu, all in new york. where are all these summa harvards you speak of?
He's dreaming, they blow as a MM. Take jefferies.
LOL, all those scrubs.
I remember seeing a tombstone .pdf of recent transactions... they definitely have some strong heads and decent deal flow. I wouldn't totally dismiss them. I would arguably take them over some MM. Different story if you have a BB offer though.
Sagent Advisor's superday? (Originally Posted: 10/13/2015)
Hi All,
Two weeks ago i had a technical phone interview with Sagent (Full-time). It went decently well, but i have not heard back yet. I was wondering if any of you knew if they have offered superday invites yet or even had their superday? It would help me big time to understand what my job search looks like. I am not from a school they recruit on.
Is this for SA or FT?
Full-time
Full-time
Anyone have any info?
Why not just email your interviewer or whomever offered you the interview?
Sagent Advisors Chicago (Originally Posted: 11/05/2015)
Hey there,
I have an SA superday coming up with Sagent in the Chicago office. The headcount is relatively small in this office (10 from what I hear, including the Co-CEO)
glad u went with jeffrays
I would also go with ignorant since there's no way i would apply to any boutique or no name
because you'd rather work for a second tier BB like BAML; I turned them down too...the point is, just because you don't know much about Sagent doesn't mean that it isn't a quality shop...the OP is looking for insight/advice and its not very helpful to discount a place that you know little about
When did you get your super day invitation? How was the 1st round phone interview?
I had an on-campus interview. It was mainly difficult technicals and more of a conversation than anything else. Also, I heard back a few days ago.
Did you hear back yet?
@undergrad44 j
do you know if the nyc office had their superday?
Yeah friends of mine at my University (which is a target) had their superdays already.
Sagent First Round (Originally Posted: 02/08/2011)
Had a first round phone interview with Sagent on Friday. Anyone heard back yet about their superday? Interviewer told me that the Superday would be this week or next week and I haven't heard back yet.
ny was pretty technical the first round. Like others said, if you have any prior ibanking exp, expect to be tested on everything on your resume.
as far as reputation goes, they have decent deal flows and have been expanding.
the people i met were all pretty smart and friendly. Ultimately, if you do get an offer from BB or other MM and sagent, I would look more closely into which group you will be placed in and the type of people you will work with. pm me if you have any questions
We're supposed to find out Wendesday. Which office did you interview for?
San Francisco office. What about you? Good luck either way.
Chicago. Good luck to you too man.
Who'd you interview with? Was it an analyst named Eric?
Check your PM.
Hopefully we'll see each other at training in NY. Big day tomorrow...
May God have mercy on your soul..
Make sure to know everything about your resume. If you mentioned "LBO" or "DCF," might as well not show up for the 2nd round. Bankers will grill you until you fail, and sooner or later you will.
That being said, Sagent Advisors is a legit place. Top dogs among MM (though dont ever call them MM). I'd pick it over some BBs. Very smart and sharp bankers. Among all MMs, Sagent Advisors has by far the most impressive list of MDs.
They are getting better - depends how you define MM - but they do a good job of sticking to what they know which is lower MM I think. Pretty good lifestyle over all, and analysts are generally very laid back/down to earth.
Do me a favor, go to their website and look at the ratio of MDs to Analysts...
Anyone hear back?
Absolute sweat shop. The Phantom is right, that ratio should show you all you need to know about "lifestyle."
heard it's bad in some offices and some are fine.
If you check their SF office MDs, I think a couple hail from Wachovia. They might be smart bankers, but this is hardly "most impressive list of MDs" among MMs. I would urge you to go through their website and try to guess which deals were done by the office you're interviewing at; chances are, there might be some ex-bulge rainmakers and some less successful but time-consuming MDs.
Name me one MM where 2/3 of MDs where Co-Heads/Heads of the entire divisions in the past... A third of MDs come from legendary DLJ
I'll be honest, I don't know. But the kid asked about the SF office, and I told him that both MDs at the office are ex-Wachovia bankers. They can be really sharp and might've spent time at Lehman or wherever before, but I wouldn't walk around saying that this is the best MM team on the street.
Keep in mind that there's little solace for a kid from a satellite office that some MD from NY he never works with is a big swinging dick.
To OP: I believed all the invitation is out. Close friend of mine works at the SF office.
To acid: Based on what the analyst at SF told me, there's little connection between NYC and SF besides the fact they recently took a guy for comm tech in nyc and he has been working with him a bit. Definitely not the "best" MM on the street but a solid group from what I heard. p.s. If you look closely, which I just did a quick glance, majority of Sagent's deal in the past year or so have been technology deals, so I wouldn't put a "satellite" office label on SF office that usually means that the office doesn't do jack.
I would also like to mention that Sagent today announced the hiring/acquisition of a couple of healthcare guys from Montgomery Marshall into their SF office. Now, I don't want to judge people who are so much smarter than myself, but Montgomery Marshall is not exactly a household name.
Ricqles - if you look closer, many of those deals can be defense electronics or industrial. Not to mention that Sagent has plenty of TMT-related bankers outside of SF - guys like Belinkoff, Casey, McGrath, Namoos, Pillar, Oliver, are all based in NY and Charlotte. This is just from the company's website. The point is that you can't definitively say "head of this company is a big swinging dick, so you should go there" without doing any research on what exactly your prospective GROUP is doing. This is how people make mistakes when figuring out what to do in their careers.
point taken and makes sense. My buddy said he's learning a ton being the only analyst under two MDs and working on some interest stuff as well so i guess both side make sense in some ways
op: sent you PM
hey phantom. Stfu you work at ssagent.
ps your own shop (sagent) calls itself a middle market player. pwned idiot.
Sagent Advisors - Interview (Originally Posted: 02/14/2014)
Non - Target Students - Did anyone have first round interviews? I had one but haven't heard back. If you did, are you guys already into second round interviews?
Sagent is a great boutique that I would take over some of its larger banks. People there are genuinely happy to be there and analysts are treated well. Friends at the firm do not seem like they work insane investment banking hours, as most of the senior bankers have already made it at the big banks and have nothing left to prove.
I'm not big on rankings, but I would say that they are a top boutique, albeit a notch below Greenhill, Centerview, etc.
The comment about people being happy isn't true based on my information. But it's a good shop. The bank has good dealflow and one I would probably take over jef, pjc, baird, etc.
For interviews I know they are moving towards more case type valuation question with changing assumptions about capital structure, etc. The only way to really prep that stuff is to know the basic technicals inside and out.
Anyone?
I interviewed with them last year, I was not impressed by their interviewing style one bit - asked grade/exam stats even before introductions. Their selection process for who to invite to superday also seemed arbitrary though I will say they personally called to let me know I had not made the cut (one of the interviewers, from her NY office). They have a strong Japanese connection I believe.
Sagent Advisors SA (Originally Posted: 01/31/2012)
I had a first round interview with Sagent Advisors for SA last week. Has anybody heard back from them regarding superdays yet?
Thanks
are you target, semi- or non? I applied heard nothing back i am non-target BTW...
Target. Did you apply online or did someone drop your resume for you? What office did you apply to?
applied online...
They had a superday last Friday....
Which office? From my understanding, each office does their own recruiting, so dates may vary.
lol, sagent is not a good boutique, nowhere near blair or piper jaffray or baird.
Final Round/superday with Sagent Advisors- HELP! (Originally Posted: 11/14/2013)
Guys, I have a final round with Sagent Advisors next week in New York. I have read literally everything about Sagent in this website and in other other websites. All posts on this website seem to be old. Can someone please tell me how their compensation, deal flow, and exit opps are like? Please let me know. Thank you!
Hey, sorry I don't know anything about their compensation. I'd suggest looking at a Bloomberg Terminal (use the league tables) to check out their deal flow. What was their first round interview like?
was not too hard
Was this for FT or SA? Just curious because a contact passed my resume along last week for FT.
Isn't jef > pjc
overall consensus is, decent mm boutique with state school kids
Sagent - Interview process (Originally Posted: 10/23/2010)
anyone going through interview process with them?
Which office?
NY? do their offices all run a different process?
They have very different teams for some of the offices, Charlotte especially. But in Charlotte's case, it's an interview on campus, and then a super day. What are you going through?
charlotte and sf do their own recruiting, not sure about chicago
their interview was a douchepocalypse, sent some 1st year associate and a newly minted VP, neither seemed credible enough to be asking the hardline questions they were. The whole "tell us your GPA and SAT score before the interview events starts" turned me off.. either screen beforehand or ask after the interview but don't try to throw people off their game like that
^ i'm pretty sure anybody on the other side of the table would be 'credible' enough to ask any of those aforementioned questions.
They seemed like dbags to me too, from one VP i knew who kept complaining about larger banks.
sagent for the people who do not want to work insane hours. u will be mainly doing sell-side m&a... so less modeling. if you don't have an offer from BB, then obviously go to Sagent.
Sagent phone interview (Originally Posted: 01/31/2012)
I am having a phone interview with Sagent Advisors tomorrow for their summer analyst internship position. Never done a phone interview before, any tips/ things i should know? Thanks
From my experience, phone interviews are mostly fit to see if your background is right for the position and how you present yourself. You may get 1 or 2 simple technical questions, so be prepared. Treat it like an in person interview and you will be fine.
I'd guess it will be almost all fit questions since it's for SA. Know your story, probably going to be the first question they ask you. Phone interviews are generally an analyst and associate both asking you questions. If you have an alumni at Sagent, they may sit in on the call as well. Good luck.
No. They ask technicals (basics... be able to manipulate a DCF and explain your reasoning) in their phone interviews. Yes this is for SA. Good luck.
thanks for the tips
i talked to an alumni at Sagent. and I have friends who have interviewed there. Their interviews are very technical. From the alumni I spoke with, he said that they usually ask technical questions until you can't answer anymore.
Definitely make sure you're in a place with good reception, that would make your life a lot easier.
Aside from making your notes accessible, make sure you speak slow and clear. Especially with technicals.
Otherwise, treat it like an in-person interview and try to remember your interviewer's name at the end - or get their e-mail for a thank you letter & follow up.
Good luck!
sagent's first round is always technical. they try to weed out students faster since they are too lean to train someone how to do a dcf
you guys were so right! 5 mn of background then straight into technicals, i think i did good for what i was supposed to know thoug
yup, i hope what i said helped. By the way, what were some of the technical questions they asked? I'm preparing for SA interviews as well.
How did it go? Did you get an offer?
Well I'm glad you listened to them and not me! Haha
Which office was this for? Do they have OCR at Tulane?
walk me through dcf, explain beta, manipulate trading comps models
stuff like that and no they dont have ocr at tulane
Dolor quibusdam inventore est est doloribus voluptatem quae inventore. Placeat explicabo necessitatibus nisi molestiae similique.
Qui et doloribus et id. Molestiae dolore eos aut vitae ut. Voluptate provident earum molestiae neque reprehenderit. In modi pariatur quam perferendis impedit sapiente aperiam. Ad ut quis harum atque asperiores.
Et rerum optio ut ab inventore nihil quae. Iusto autem et nemo et sunt quia eos. Vero ea suscipit perspiciatis rerum. Ut velit accusamus accusantium aut sit. Quas in vero qui possimus. Dolores aut debitis repellat nihil. Dolores expedita et molestiae porro.
See All Comments - 100% Free
WSO depends on everyone being able to pitch in when they know something. Unlock with your email and get bonus: 6 financial modeling lessons free ($199 value)
or Unlock with your social account...
Fuga necessitatibus quas qui consequatur ut. Et repellendus pariatur enim. Qui expedita beatae mollitia perferendis. Corporis est doloribus ullam eum culpa quos dolore et. Iure quia sit libero ipsum. Sequi cupiditate est dicta sit. Fugit magnam nam consequatur animi incidunt saepe.
Temporibus id et et in perspiciatis nesciunt earum. Cum in vel architecto ipsam eum et.
Eveniet soluta et aut autem. Soluta sit et minima nemo et nobis dolores ullam. In et dignissimos ea neque rerum. Impedit nemo corrupti debitis aut. Ut aut adipisci aspernatur labore.
Consequatur aut est dolor delectus. Ipsam molestiae voluptas doloribus quia sit est. Beatae amet cum corrupti similique accusantium sequi. Cumque voluptatem quod dignissimos architecto et. Natus et repudiandae maxime sequi. Deserunt recusandae magni eaque distinctio.
Quidem amet iusto ut cupiditate velit voluptatum at. Perspiciatis et consectetur id aut inventore porro mollitia vel.
Ut qui laboriosam quaerat temporibus. Accusamus qui quo reprehenderit voluptate sapiente. Explicabo pariatur veniam exercitationem. Excepturi quia eius blanditiis quo omnis doloribus.
Ab autem magni animi. Suscipit quo itaque et veritatis eaque exercitationem eaque. Eum deleniti ut nostrum quis aut.
Vitae provident voluptatem est architecto. Blanditiis eveniet a tempore sed. Autem corrupti sed architecto veritatis nihil.
Nobis perspiciatis impedit excepturi nisi possimus voluptatem. Numquam repellendus aut quos nihil ea in aperiam. Assumenda natus ut dolores eveniet culpa doloremque reprehenderit.