Opinion on STRH

I've worked for them as an analyst. SunTrust is not a bad place to be. They try hard to be respected as a "real" investment bank, and they do occasionally get pretty good deals.

TLDR; its not a bad place to start, you can get into PE (US but mostly Southeast) and bulge brackets with ease if that is your goal.

Pros: Lifestlye is quite good at STRH, Especially at the associate level. You get paid over $200k to work a 9-6 occasionally 7,8,9,10 and occasionally some hours on the weekends.

Analysts still have good hours relative to other banks, but your bonus will reflect the difference. Exit opportunities have been increasingly favorable, and most of my analyst class went into PE (southeast) / Business development management/ New York bulge brackets. Certainly not bad for a MM shop. That being said, having a balance sheet allows for some larger deals to come through your doorstep.

Cons: I dont think STRH is enough to get you into top business schools, but its not a bad place to start. Now, the real cons as an analyst are that there is no "marketing" department, so you are stuck doing A LOT of bitch work. They pride themselves on their efficiency ratio, which is basically the money they don't spend on making your life easier. Half of the job in "IB" is corporate banking, which I actually think is good experience, but the finance community does not respect it much. You learn what it is to be debt investor, a good life skill imo. But they have not done a good job separating IB and Corporate banking, and their criteria is essentially IB = supporting companies over $500MM in revenue, middle market = less than $500MM. Which translates into, we are an IB / corporate bank at all levels based on your revenues. Pretty silly since, they are an MM shop, but this speaks to the culture, STRH looks at themselves very favorably, and act like they are JPM, lets be real, you are MM and have a balance sheet, you do okay work, dont pretend you are something more.

Secondly, they are very backwards on supporting analyst exits. This is my biggest complaint. STRH sucks at career development outside of their company. Many other shops realize, analysts work a lot, and we help them get jobs after we beat them to the bush. Not Sunny T. Their exit conversation is secret, silent, and taboo. HORRIBLE. That is their worst problem. They need a new and realistic HR department that actually understands what IB is, and understand the mutual benefit of analyst exits. Granted the industry as a whole views the above with sensitivity and is currently in flux, lets just say SunTrust has 0 concept of what the industry was doing 10 years ago as well as today. If you want to exit, you are on your own. You will have decent experience to back it up, but management assistance is rare.

Final thoughts: its a good shop to start, if you want to work at KKR, this is a pass, if you want a solid middle market PE or business development role in the southeast, its great, Atlanta gets some gripe from fratty New York bros, but its honestly a great town with a lot to offer, and STRH gives a good paycheck for you to be happy.

This is the most honest review you will get. Hope this helps!