Barclays Menlo vs Lazard SF vs PWP SF

Grateful to have offers from these places - all 3 for their Tech groups. Would appreciate some insight to each of these groups, especially in terms of deal flow, culture, trajectory, and exits into both buy-side as well as CorpDev.

12 Comments
 
Most Helpful

Would not include Barclays Menlo within the conversation if I were you. They just lost their 2 primary dealmakers.

Lazard's a good office but they're a bit less of a traditional IB office. They do a lot of consulting-like work on retainer for corporates and are effectively outsourced corp dev for those clients. They get on some pretty large deals but a large portion of your time there will be spent on one-off projects or case studies for those clients. The group also cross-staffs with the Boston office. Culture there is relatively good. The group definitely has strong exits, a bit more oriented towards growth (TCV, CVC), but some top buyout as well (Thoma, Silver Lake, Clearlake).

PWP SF is the smallest group out of the 3, but seems to be on growth mode (added Dunn this month as well as a partner last year that's based in LA but works with the SF team). Like Lazard, they're not as active on pitching and largely focus on covering repeat clients, with quite a lot of non-M&A strategic advisory work for large corporates. Deal flow is pretty good and is largely concentrated on software (very little exposure to semis and hardware), and the juniors there are also cross-staffed with the NY Tech and FinTech teams. Culture there is pretty chill, probably the best out of the 3. Exits historically have been good among buy-side (Sixth Street, EQT, Francisco), and the office seems to have strong corp dev placement as well (lots of FAANG and unicorns).

Overall, I'd probably go with Lazard.

 

Echoing what's been said above, Lazard and PWP have pretty similar SF Tech offices in that at both of them, your experience will include a lot more non-M&A strategic advisory work than at a traditional BB or another pitch-focused EB like Moelis or Evercore. Lazard's SF office is much larger and more established, and has traditionally had very strong buyside exits. PWP's office, while not on the level of Lazard SF, is still no slouch in terms of buyside recruiting and places pretty well, and the office also has strong corp-dev and startup DNA. 

Barclays Menlo has traditionally had pretty strong exits as well, although given the recent turnover at the senior levels I'd be cautious about joining that group.

 

Had good talks with Barclays menlo a couple years ago, like the guys there, seem pretty chill. Seems semi/saas focused. Wouldn’t take them above Laz/PWP though.

 

Ullam ratione incidunt modi aliquid quidem nesciunt qui. Dolore ea et incidunt dolor sit. Aut natus voluptatem velit aut quas nulla. Dolorem quod dolorem quo aut.

Eius rem quis qui consectetur vero accusantium. Recusandae nihil ut et hic libero laboriosam. Ut assumenda at ratione totam consectetur illum.

Odio quia voluptatem unde deleniti iste aut. Maxime laboriosam molestias fugit rerum reiciendis sapiente excepturi. Sed exercitationem voluptatem reiciendis corrupti accusamus saepe quia. Aut in voluptatibus ut harum. Ut incidunt deserunt sequi saepe in. Explicabo debitis quisquam aperiam soluta minus. Neque harum est quia.

Career Advancement Opportunities

July 2026 Investment Banking

  • Evercore 01 99.4%
  • Moelis & Company 01 98.9%
  • JPMorgan 01 98.3%
  • Guggenheim Partners 01 97.7%
  • Morgan Stanley 07 97.1%

Overall Employee Satisfaction

July 2026 Investment Banking

  • Moelis & Company No 99.4%
  • Evercore No 98.8%
  • Morgan Stanley 01 98.3%
  • BMO Capital Markets 13 97.7%
  • Banco Santander 01 97.1%

Professional Growth Opportunities

July 2026 Investment Banking

  • Evercore 01 99.4%
  • Moelis & Company 01 98.9%
  • Morgan Stanley 06 98.3%
  • Goldman Sachs 01 97.7%
  • JPMorgan 01 97.1%

Total Avg Compensation

July 2026 Investment Banking

  • Vice President (15) $434
  • Associates (46) $258
  • 3rd+ Year Analyst (8) $210
  • 2nd Year Analyst (22) $179
  • Intern/Summer Associate (13) $156
  • 1st Year Analyst (80) $150
  • Intern/Summer Analyst (73) $101
notes
16 IB Interviews Notes

“... there’s no excuse to not take advantage of the resources out there available to you. Best value for your $ are the...”

Leaderboard

1
redever's picture
redever
99.2
2
Secyh62's picture
Secyh62
99.0
3
BankonBanking's picture
BankonBanking
99.0
4
kanon's picture
kanon
99.0
5
GameTheory's picture
GameTheory
98.9
6
CompBanker's picture
CompBanker
98.9
7
DrApeman's picture
DrApeman
98.9
8
dosk17's picture
dosk17
98.9
9
Betsy Massar's picture
Betsy Massar
98.9
10
numi's picture
numi
98.8
success
From 10 rejections to 1 dream investment banking internship

“... I believe it was the single biggest reason why I ended up with an offer...”