Stephens IB, Exit Opps

From what I've heard culture is that recruiting is kept quiet.

Stephens guys do a decent job at PE recruiting from my understanding, especially in the south. Not great for NYC recruiting.

Stephens is very firmly boutique. I have heard good things about them, but if you can get a BB offer take it. If not, Stephens is good option.

I dont know much about the NYC office but i know a couple of analysts in the Arkansas office that say their hours are absolutely brutal, however deal exposure and exit opps seem to be solid.

I know quite a bit abou the bank, as I interviewed last year and did a lot of investigating on my own.

From what I gathered, Stephens has a relatively good rep. Obviously not a BB, but everyone I spoke with about the firm had good things to say. As far as exit opps, I have heard that they are not that great unless, say you have family connections and just needed that IB on your resume. When I interviewed, the analysts were in the middle of applying for jobs and I got a lot of fluff as far as where they were looking, who was looking at them, where the analysts from the last class ended up, etc. That is not to say there are not good exit opps, I just felt like they woudln't give me a straight answer as far as.... yah, Joe from last year is at XYZ and ABC comes here every year looking for kids....

They were big on tyring to keep their "best" analysts on for a 3rd year, which a lot of times rolls into a full career at Stephens, I think they like the idea of keeping analysts after the 2 year stint.

Yes, they have an office in NY, though it is small. They were looking to fill one spot last year in NY, I am not sure about this year. The bulk of the analyst class stays in LR, but they also have offices in Dallas, Atlanta, NY (think that is it).

I assume from your user name that you play college sports, that is good, they like that.

The only problem that I had with Stephens and the one thing that I could see as holding down their reputation is the fact that a lot (cannot put a #) of the analysts are hired b/c they went to school with Mr. Stephens son - or their dad is a friend of XXX, etc.

For example, when they flew us back to campus on their jet after the super day, one of the analysts accompanied us on the flight. We asked him how he decided he wanted to work at Stephens, to which he responded "Well, actually I didn't really know what I wanted to do. I went to school with XXX and was looking for a job, so I called him. It was actually pretty cool, I spoke with XXX and he called the HR lady and set me up. She called the next day and I joined the analyst class"

I am not bashing the practice, I have & will benefit from such connections, but I think stephens kind of has a reputation for really pushing that to the extreme.

Hope this helps

If you take the Stephens NYC offer, spend as much time as possible working for Bob Towbin. The man has had every type of wall street job, from floor trader to investment banker, has run two firms, and pretty much seen everything. I had the opportunity to spend 15 minutes speaking with him once, and it was far more valuable than a large portion of the countless hours I've spent talking to innumerable senior bankers.

Stephens does place well into PE regionally. They seem to have a lot of ex-analysts at firms in Texas and you'll also see some in Atlanta, Nashville, Charlotte and Florida. I rarely see someone from Stephens moving to NYC, SF, Chicago or Boston.

Also, depends if you want to live in Little Rock, AR or if you can get transferred to an office in the larger cities. They are quite known in the Southwest.

A friend I know who was working in ATL said the same thing in terms of hours and deal exposure

Stephens is a very good firm with a strong and growing footprint in the south...see latest Verizon asset sale ($3 billion). They will work you really hard, but you are going to have very good exit-ops into PE funds in the south and a lot of analysts stay at the firm for a long time (A-A and up).

As to the NYC office, that is a new spot for Stephens. During the crisis, Warren Stephens essentially picked up the hot shots of Wall Street that were cut as seen by the post above. The NYC office is quite small, but if you want to go there, give it a shot...not worth shutting down Atlanta, Dallas, and Little Rock though.

^^ good post. They hire a lot from southern schools (W&M, Emory, UVA, Tulane, etc.)

Basically i'm not gonna say much more because MistaBrooks covered it all.

Bump

Bump.

Have a buddy from a neighboring SEC school that is interviewing with them (I think it's for the Dallas office though). Any additional thoughts on Stephens?

Breakthrough says they are quite known in the Southwest, does that mean they have good exit opps in the Soutwest or what? Would this significantly hurt your chances (in regards to work experience) of getting into a top B-school?

This is incredibly helpful, thanks guys. Sounds a bit like it could pigeonhole you in the south. But then again, I suppose that could partly be by choice if a lot of their analysts are from the region.

Standard BB hours then (at least portrayed on this site)? Weekdays usually at the office past midnight and a decent amount of work on the weekends?

I think the majority of their spots are in Little Rock, which isn't appealing to most. That being said, I've never heard so many positive things about a boutique shop outside of NYC. Apparently the learning experience is very legit, and they get really solid deal flow.

Stephens? Is this a small boutique?

Know a guy that went to a mid-sized Mezz fund after his analyst years from Stephens NYC. In my opinion, if you're going to work for Stephens, don't be in the NYC office. Go to Little Rock as that will give you the best training. Atlanta would be second choice. You'd be surprised how tough the learning curve can be when you're in a small satellite office with only MDs and no one is around to answer your questions.

I think it does pigeonhole you a bit both by choice and by options. This is based on conjecture and a friend of mine who went Stephens to southern PE but: 1) Stephens doesn't have much of a brand outside the South 2) As you mentioned, there's an element of self-selection generally so that's where the Stephens network is 3) It's hard to break into outside geographic markets (although some are easier than others). NYC is pretty insular because there are so many qualified kids down the street. Chicago is insular because of the nature of the general recruiting and also there are a lot of banking analysts there. SF/LA is a bit more open for whatever reason--I see a lot more people from outside the region (mostly from Chi / NYC).

Bump

lol nepotism at its finest

Smuguy97 thanks. Being an SEC guy I'm not too opposed to the south (although I have traveled through little rock once before and it seemed quite sub-par, even for the south). Would someone say that a Stephens gig would be a better experience (learning curve, deal flow, exit opps) than Wachovia IBD?

Anymore thoughts on this?

Would absolutely take Stephens over Wachovia if you're interested in the South. Wachovia is known for mismanaging talent.