Which banks have the best culture in London? I heard PWP HC has a really good culture and even working hours are not rough. Working hours do not really matter to me if the culture and people you work with are not toxic (yelling, gossiping, etc.). What about JPM TMT? I got to know they also have a really good culture. Let's rank the banks in terms of culture.
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| +166 | Biggest gripe in IB: people with no balls | 40 | 2d | |
| +155 | 2nd casualty of BofA, 25 yo credit trader | 48 | 1h | |
| +150 | MD Can’t Unplug | 40 | 2d | |
| Am I insane? (NEED ADVICE) | 52 | 1h | ||
| +64 | BofA Assoc who died had sought to leave, citing long hours | 16 | 2d | |
| +49 | Is banking more tolerable in Houston? | 32 | 8h | |
| +40 | How Much Parental Assistance Do People Actually Have? | 15 | 10h | |
| +39 | Another BofA trader died? This is insane... | 24 | 2d | |
| +34 | How is Northwestern? | 7 | 21h |
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Bump, also interested
Culture is different in every team at a bank.
Yeah, I get that but can you share insights on the best team in terms of culture within the bank?
Avoid MS, Citi and Arma.
Yeah, I learned that MS has a terrible culture but then one guy told me he had an amazing time at MS (worked there a couple of years back so things might got changed). Why Citi and Arma? Any particular experience?
Worked with Citi on a major deal and multiple seniors treated people like trash. Had a VP treating mgmt. at the client like they were children and seniors were very rude to juniors openly in client meetings. There were even discussions of them getting pulled off the deal because of their behaviour. Can only imagine what it looks like behind the scenes and it's called Shiti for a reason. Have heard that Arma is a real sweatshop with a pretty bad culture and it seems a lot of people leave for other banks as soon as they can.
Not trying to take away from your OG post but I made a post before and ended up getting onto this topic - advised by many to pass on MS London. I remember seeing a comment that people make snarky remarks like 'nice of you to show up' after pulling all-nighters
In my experience
Toxic - JPM (most teams, super political)
Bad - MS, BNP, Rothschild & Co
Good - BoA, DB, Barc
What about other EBs? Any insights on Lazard?
Would strongly recommend to avoid
Interesting to see JPM ranked as worse than MS. In my experience, most people at JPM have had a decent experience while literally everyone I have ever met from MS has hated the bank deeply. Agreed on BoA, DB and Barc. Know people from all three banks and they have nothing but good things to say.
Have heard that both Rothschild and Lazard have British elitist cultures, which is not very appreciated by people who don't come from a rich British family and went to Oxford.
All EBs are like that. Have experienced a BB, MM and EB (roths) in London and Roths was noticeable different in terms of diversity and vibe - private school elitist sort of culture. The BB and MM were more international and diverse.
Heard Rothschild culture in London is actually quite good. HC and Consumer insanely sweaty but strong teams and lots of socials
Perella Weinberg Partners (PWP) - Healthcare (HC) Division: As you mentioned, PWP's Healthcare division has been known for its strong culture and better work-life balance compared to some other investment banks.
Also, exit opps are not that bad. Know someone who went to CVC from PWP HC
How is DC’s culture overall?
bump this
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PWP HC? That team is just one guy but yeah their culture seems pretty good in ldn
Any insights about PJT?
Had a senior (Y3 Cambridge econ student) tell me that his time in PJT was “elysian”
That is the exact word I’d expect someone from Cambridge to use as a descriptor
that's because any time they have actual work to do they jam it to NYC and head to the pub
Source?
As a general rule in Europe, French banks do not have a good culture and Americans are hardos (although I have heard good things about BofA). Don't know much about American EBs.
Heard especially bad things from french banks in France
The culture at Natixis and BNP is quite good from what I’ve heard. Cant speak on Credit Agricole and SG
Mate, we get that you received a Natixis offer, no one cares about it 😂
Congratulations on Natixis, now if you could stop polluting every thread with that shit bank it would be appreciated.
I didn't even remember Credit Agricole
Relatively Better Culture - PWP, Moelis, LionTree, Jefferies
Relatively Worse Culture - GS (LDN is way better than NY though), Lazard, Evercore, Arma, JPM, MS, Rothschild
All other BBs and EBs have the usual banking culture. The lists above are some outliers. Keep in mind, by culture I mean the people more than the workload. If you’re a junior banker working at a decent shop, expect that you’ll do the most mundane tasks and will be overworked anyway. However, if your Associate or Analyst II are jerks then things can go downhill real fast. Worst case, they can almost force you to quit (switch banks) or ensure that you’re ultimately canned or force you to get therapy. Regardless of where you get an offer from, ensure you’re stuck with decent people.
P.S. My list is based on just my experiences and my friends who work for some of these banks. No hard feelings.
quite humorous how the ones with the worst culture are the definitive top London banks and then you just have arma sneaking in lol. pjt/bofa seem to be the outliers for the remaining tier 1s. No idea about citi but can't imagine great morale in the midst of Bora Bora.
No way, i cant let you get away with that. Moelis absolutely does not have a good working culture from the Associate level downwards. Certain areas are clique-y AF (refusing to staff people if you don't fit a certain background), the analyst programme actively promotes politics (hiding away from certain MDs, staffers hunting analysts to overload them with work), bugging you on holidays for trivial bullshit or actively pressuring you to not take holidays. Some associates will gladly throw you under the bus to make themselves look better. Additionally, the feedback / appraisal system is askew, you're incentivised to seek feedback (and hence a higher bonus) from people who actively like you (whether or not it's actually deserved) instead of obtaining constructive criticism from all the people you've worked with.
My beef is, wtf is the point of setting up a generalist programme when you are actively stonewalled from working with certain groups and you have to play politics / stick to certain VPs/ associates / Directors to not get absolutely crushed?
Worst of all, some of the good MDs are rumoured to be leaving / have already left for better things. TLDR: analyst programme is a full time exercise in unnecessary crummy politics, a few associates are straight up bastards who'd fuck anyone over to save themselves, and certain groups are reincarnations of antiquated high school cliques.
That said, once you become an associate and commit to a certain group, life gets a whole lot better but i will never advise an analyst to start their career in Moelis Ldn. Needs a massive cultural reset IMO.
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