Activism Defense/Shareholder advisory comp/lifestyle, hours/culture/on the job
Almost all the threads on Activism Defense/Shareholder advisory revolved around exit opps and prestige.
Does no one do a job within IB because they are interested in the role anymore?
I wanted to find out if anyone has any experience in the space and what your day to day looks like in terms of hours and the typical culture.
I am currently in banking but can definitely see myself in the Activist Defense/Shareholder advisory space for the next 25 years so I am generally curious as to what to expect if I am able to make the job at this level.
I know there is zero modeling and the work is much more qualitative hence exit opps are of zero priority for me, so my questions revolve around:
1. What are your typical hours
2. What is the comp progression
3. Do you regularly or never work weekends and pull all nighters.
4. Whats the general culture like? is it fratty or nerdy, conservative or full of liberals (no reason why i am asking i am just curious)
5. How does the work change from a junior to a senior level.
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Bump
bumppppppp
Got a friend that’s an associate in the group at my BB. Here’s what I know. Overall seems like a pretty solid gig if you want to be in it long term but like you mentioned hard to pivot to PE/HF and even other traditional coverage/product groups.
Has a tendency to be less junior-heavy because there isn’t any modeling and often times the role of the team is to provide some additional insight to a meeting as opposed to being the focus of the meeting. So it makes sense to have the senior folks who can talk about activism threats/tactics. Not always as important to have the junior folks but pages still need to be made.
Honestly I think it’s a questionable place for juniors looking to exit. Certainly doesn’t support the PE route. I’ve seen juniors think that this role would lead them to an activist fund, but they’ve always been disappointed and can’t see how that’s realistic at all. Activist fund wants juniors to do the same thing that other hedge funds do, so they need financial people i.e. modeling.
So where do juniors exit, generally I’ve seen them exit to miscellaneous corporate roles that rely on their college experience rather than the time they spent in an activist defense group. Not that it’s 2 lost years, you still get paid and get all the general experience of being in an IB environment.
For those who want to stay in the group longer term, ideal fit is someone who’s less interested in businesses, more interested in activism broadly as a topic and wants to develop into a generalist activism advisor (ie updating clients on the state of play in Delaware, new legal developments and so forth).
Most senior activism bankers came from a legal background. Doesn’t mean you have to, but strong indication that it’s a less financially oriented role.
Mind if I pm? Have an upcoming interview in this space
Sure no problem. Haven’t worked directly in one of those groups but know a fair bit from sitting near one of them and working across from them.
Would just add on to the thread, the challenge in finding a lot of information about these groups is partly due to not a lot of roles available in groups like this. Bulge Brackets may have specialized groups with small headcounts but at smaller banks this may just be another area advised on by core investment banking. Reality is the fee pool for this type of business is much smaller than many other products.
Agree with this. I’m at a BB and have worked with our Defence team. Some of the mandates have low fees or no fee at all in some cases. The juice really comes from negotiating a tail on future business for a period of time (M&A, financings, etc).
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