Analysts from bad groups, where did you go?

Not posting anonymously.

Sincerely curious. If you worked in investment banking and you finished your analyst gig at a terrible group (i.e., bad deal-flow; mostly pitches; terrible culture), what did you do next? 

Reason I'm asking is I'm in a terrible group and I'm not really learning a lot from my current job. It's deal-sourcing heavy even at a junior level. I feel stuck, yet when I send out resumes, people frown upon leaving my current gig around ~6 months. It also doesn't help that I got laid off ~6 months on my last job. It's not about the hours. Actually I'm averaging like 50 hours a week. Max I've got so far is ~90 and that was only 3 times. 

33 Comments
 

Interesting post -- we always hear about the "top groups," but curious to hear if those from the "lesser groups" still did fine (and I imagine many of them did). 

 

Some MM PE firms that has no way of knowing how few serious deals your bank closes and long as there are at least 2 and a half decent one on your resume. Same with lateraling. People care about your skill set and knowledge so you can step in and do the gig. Not as concerned with how many sick deal trophies you have (unless you wanna go MF)

 
Most Helpful

PainterDry

Not just the how. But the why, who, where, what? 

 

what were your internal and external drivers ?

what was the outcome ? 

+Why

++ When I joined my team it was one of the best and went after very large mandates. They transitioned to more of a consulting / advisory role by the time I started and really moved in that direction during my time there. That resulted in less mega-campaigns which was less interesting to me (I’d rather 2-3 large proxy fights vs 20-30 ongoing projects without an activist).

+Who

++ I was lucky enough to have a lot of friends at other firms who were helpful in thinking through what I wanted and helping me prep

+Where

++ I wanted to stay in NYC, so I kept my options limited to this region. Is this what you meant?

+What

++ I’m not sure about this one

+Internal drivers

++ I wasn’t really interested in the work anymore and really wanted to enjoy the work I was doing. I’m already on some really cool projects and love the space

+External drivers

++ It’s definitely a good experience and will open a lot of doors for me in the future, so that was another factor for me

Hope this helps!

 

For me I’m really interested in my coverage space and wanted to do either banking or PE in this sector. After deciding banking was the best next step, I focused on opportunities in my space (but still applied to other coverage teams and M&A and LevFin teams at a few places).

The lateral market has been really hot, so I did luck out on that front. I’d say having a clear idea of what you want and why is really helpful for the transition process.

 

It’s a serious post.
All groups are very similar. Much of bankers time is spend on pitching with little execution. It’s the nature of client relationship management 

Thats why I was saying there’s no bad group, your exit opps are very similar irregardless of what bank your at. 

There’s nothing really bad about IB (pay is great, work is standardized).

We think our groups are different but we  are a commodity industry. Sorry 

This entire thread is pointless.

Exit opps are the same. If you want something bad in life you work for it. 

 

I will say that your situation sounds worse. I was at a legit company, just looking at a lot of small potato deals and doing a lot of pitching, but never had to actually source my own (that was still on the higher ups). If you're not learning any hard skills - finance/accounting, how to build out models, Excel/PPT basics... then your group sounds pretty bad.

 

Thanks for your comment. I would like to understand a couple of things.

  1. What kind of modeling do you do in shareholder activism groups, if at all any.
  1. How difficult is it to latéral to other groups, either in the same firm or externally? Especially as an analyst.
  1. How does the bonus numbers compare with other groups in your firm?

Thanks again :)

Array
 

Hi!

1. Usually pretty similar to any coverage analyst, just that you need to understand how to do modeling for a wide variety of sectors (at least that's what I did). 

2. Exits weren't outstanding in general from company, but usually pretty easy to move internally.

3. Usually average compared to other groups. Sometimes a bit below average but not by much

 

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