Why so serious?

GenghisKhan — Tue, 14 Oct 2008 20:08:34 -0400

I suspect that for some time now, I've been a voice of caution on this board. The reason for that was simple: I have the benefit of having experienced a number of traumatic downdrafts in this business, and I am privy to much information about the institutional outlook of my firm, among others. Most bankers are not.

The last few months have been highly traumatic for the industry, which is one of the reasons I have not been active here. With all due respect to this board and how much I enjoy being helpful here, frankly I've had bigger fish to fry.

I have been meaning, however, to chime in at least once about the gloom and doom that persists not only here but in the halls of most investment banks as well. And given that I've been a persistent voice of caution, you might be surprised to hear that I don't think it's all that bad (presuming of course that we can hang in there for another six months through the end of the next bonus cycle).

Some historical context for current students

GenghisKhan — Sat, 05 Apr 2008 14:03:55 -0400

In the early spring of 2003, I was laying off colleagues and telling aspiring students that if they didn't get summer internships, we had no plans to come back for full time recruiting since our plan was to hire exclusively from our summer class.

In the summer of 2003, our interns got slaughtered. By fall, we were telling them to try to poach their classmates who had interned at other banks.

Private messages

GenghisKhan — Sat, 05 Apr 2008 09:47:07 -0400

I usually get a number of these from time to time, and have done my best to answer them (although many times one will slip through the cracks, and my replies may not be particularly timely).

MBA vs direct promotion

GenghisKhan — Sat, 17 Mar 2007 22:20:21 -0400

OK, I said I'd try to explain my thoughts on MBA associates versus analyst promotes, so here goes:

My thinking on this has evolved over the years. As a former analyst with a slightly unconventional career path, my views are colored by my own experiences as well as the analysts I've worked with over the years.

The advantage that A2As tend to have is that they are plug-and-play. They've had three years to get used to what they're doing, and for the most part can execute like a well-oiled machine. When I was a junior associate, I would have argued that our top performing associates across the board were mostly A2A promotes.

Thank you emails

GenghisKhan — Sat, 20 Jan 2007 00:22:15 -0500

Another post just brought up a pet peeve of mine. When you are sending me your "thank-you" emails, please don't do it at 1am.

Last Saturday, I swear I got at least a dozen between 11pm and 2am. Please remember that I keep my blackberry close by because I'm running a number of deals at any particular moment, and try to be responsive to a number of very demanding CEOs, CFOs and Board members. I'm also keeping an eye out for emergency staffing requests ("Need a VP, associate and two analysts asap!! Forgot to tell you Friday - bake-off Monday."), and trying to be courteous to my own junior bankers (if they're in the office at 2am and have a question about how to handle Schedule Ms versus Federal NOLs, I feel it's only right to give them an answer promptly).