Baird analyst FT

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Activity and deal quality is high, particularly for the better groups.

I’ll split culture into two categories because I think they are often conflated:

-the people are fantastic, by this I mean fewer egos, genuinely down to earth, and many have families and that type of vibe. Flexibility is huge with respect to working from home, etc

-hours, these are rough, there’s no getting around it. They have some strong structural things in place such as pencils down from 7pm Friday to 10am sunday (during the worst period of last year this was not always honored but has since been rectified—I haven’t had to work a Saturday in probably 4-5months) but the nights are late

Your opinion may differ but I’d rather work long hours for good people even if it’s tough at times

Overall it’s an awesome spot to be a career banker and a good platform for experience and lateral opps if your goals lie elsewhere

Have been at the firm for some time now and I must say I’ve truly enjoyed it. Yes, it’s a busy shop and there will be some late nights, but you’re working with some awesome people and getting fantastic deal exposure. Protected weekend policy has also been wonderful and allows me to get away for a day without thinking about work at all. You’ll catch a few egos / loud mouths here and there (i.e., sometimes juniors like to leave the office between 7-10pm because believe it or not, we don’t want to spend every waking hour in the office - so other juniors will call you out on it. Keep in mind, we’re not done for the day then, we just move to the WFH setup while our superiors eat dinner at home and put their kids to sleep. In cases like this, you tell them to kick rocks and get a life). But nothing you wouldn’t expect being in an office full of Chads. Otherwise the experience has been fantastic. Most definitely a place to establish a foundation for a long term banking career.

Current Baird employee. Simply put, this is the best place I've ever worked and I'm going to stay here as long as I keep moving up.

The no asshole policy is true. I've seen top performers let go because they're jerks. Saturdays are highly respected. My group head checks in weekly to make sure I didn't do any unsanctioned work. Everyone here is very community oriented, there are no sharp elbows or knives in backs.

Yes, hours can be brutal, but that's part of how busy we are.

Plus, Chicago is incredibly cheap especially considering how much we make.

If I ever left Baird, it would be for a career entirely outside of finance.

You know you're going to stay up late when you're working just as much as every other sweaty bank despite having a pencil down policy.

Used to work at Baird. Great place if you have no life and hobbies outside of work. Had to switch to corp dev when my fiancé left me for working so much.