How is the lifestyle in FIG?
I have heard that the work gets pretty rough in FIG where people stay back in the office much later than some of the other groups. Is this true? If so, why is it this way?
Also, if someone can comment on the lifestyle in-depth, that'll be great.
Depends on your bank. At mine - worst team for hours.
Why is that? Seems like FIG has one of the worst hours more often than not.
Complexity of work and often deals that have to close much faster as conditions in FIG can evolve very quickly.
I work at a FIG / FinTech bank and hours are rough because of the massive amount of deal flow we get though this is primarily driven by the FinTech side rather than the FIG side.
LinkedIn -> FTPartners “Richard”
Looks like the guy is at JPM now
Dude, that's not me. No one is that stupid to put their username as their actual name and then start talking about their bank so freely. How do you know I'm even a guy?
Also, how is FIG if I am interested in pursuing a long-term career in IB?
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Never heard anyone in a FIG group say their hours are manageable. Might be a function of size of group relative to other coverage groups, but that's a complete guess.
I did my internship at a relatively strong FIG group on the street and hated it. The hours are long and the content is super dry but also very technical. Imagine reading pages and pages of regulatory info at 1am.
It honestly takes a special type of person to enjoy FIG work, especially on the depo and insurance side. I honestly don't know a single person in my class or group of friends that enjoyed FIG. I've also heard FIG is typically the worst group in terms of hours.
Unless you enjoy FIG or is going to a top FIG group like GS for the exit ops, I would avoid FIG because it is very niche, difficult to understand (at least for me) and can be very sweaty depending on the bank.
If someone is interested in the FIG space would you say that the most common "cons" of being in that group get better?
Wondering how time spent at mid-tier FIG as someone interested in the space would be
Sounds more like reading law books and regulations than actual finance lol
Interned in BB FIG last year - was staffed on one insurance deal that required a lot of reading about obscure insurance statutes, but the deal itself was a live M&A and super interesting. Ran the entire process within our group, other than a senior MD from M&A.
Take the comments above with a grain of salt - people worship restructuring banking on this site, but forget that restructuring IB is also researching tons of very specific debt agreements and legal statutes. If getting in the weeds is a turn-off, you'll find IB tough in any group.
FIG hours suck for sure, but it's definitely a factor of how busy these groups are. For an analyst looking for PE exits, I can't give you any advice... but will say that BB FIG groups are usually well regarded within the bank and promise solid deal experience, even if pretty niche.
Thank you -- appreciate the insight
Do you happen to know if the bonus pool for FIG groups are usually higher than other coverage due to the amount of deal flow / wallet share of the overall IBD fees?
How would they stack up against Piper Sandlers FIG team (Sandler O'Neill group)?
FIG / M&A / RX are by far the three most technical groups that you could be in for investment banking - FIG by the nature of the coverage sphere causes a decent amount of burn out
AM / WM / Insurance Brokerage follows conventional valuation methodologies - meanwhile banks / insurance (P&C / Life) / specialty finance have their own nuances and drivers to deriving value
Personalities could be difficult at times but the intensity level never seams to stop - for the most part everyone in c-suite at firms have mathematical backgrounds (mainly insurance) and have a much better understanding of the nuances around their industry
A banker can typically get away with numbers being wrong with some more softer touch industries but in FIG every time you go into a pitch the person across the table is either A) Ex-banker, B) Actuary, or C) Statistician so there is typically very little room for error (mistakes still happen but a lot more scrutiny)
Just my 2 cents from experience - feel free the PM if you really want to go in depth
Friend of mine does FIG as a mid-tier BB in London and gets recruited for FIG teams at MFs. Exits can be decent (based on this single example).
Guys, I worked at FIG and despite how technical you want to call it, it is a jokeass industry group.
Yes, it is very technical and it is so technical that you won't be able to understand it even you are a VP.
You are lying to yourself if you work at FIG and think you know your shits after 3-5 years.
For example, you can spent years and you would know so little about life insurers because you are not an actuary. You only know the high level stuff like VNB margin, EV, etc. Do you know matching/volatility adjustment?
For banks, you know how to model it. But are you sure you know each businesses well enough? You will gain mechanical knowledge of building a model but all the sophisticated stuff behind is so difficult that you won't know more than someone who worked at Citi FLDP or similar jobs.
And worst part is the gap between operation guys and bankers are so wide in FIG vs other groups. In a traditional sector, it is not so black box and way easier to understand what the people in industry actually doing
This is a dumb criticism - it's not like TMT bankers knows the technical side of the clients product better than the software engineers or O&G bankers know how to run a fleet of rigs better than the guy whose worked for Exxon for 20 years... Don't get me wrong, FIG is very niche and takes a while to become fluent in, but I think you're ignoring one pivotal thing... we are trying to be bankers, not operators.
Hence FIG is forever bankers or PE. Much narrower exit ops compared to other sector team.
A TMT guy can move to a TMT corporate and get up to speed fast because things are simpler. Your finance knowledge is also valued because they often aren't the most financial type people.
A FIG banker probably know as much as someone joining FLDP at a bank for 3 months. And your clients' modeling and finance knowledge is on par to yours, if not better.
I bet a consumer/TMT banker probably knows what they are doing much more than a FIG banker. And his financial knowledge probably get valued more there. While in insurance under FIG, you have WORSE modeling than an actuary, does not what the CFO talking when he mentions solvency stress test and less knowledge in the industry. Yes, you are a banker and not an operator. But unfortunately FIG clients are the real bankers who are good at operating and good at finance.
Did a generalist SA and had some FIG exposure -
One thing which I noticed vs. other industries is the consequences of the enormous information availability in annual reports of FIG companies. Due to strict regulations they report everything.
I found endless benchmarking obscure ratios for many many players searching through the huge annual reports to be one of the most soul-sucking tasks for appendix filling slides.
This high information availability across the industry might play a role in workload being constantly higher. Curious to hear how actual FIG bankers think about this.
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