BB Leveraged Finance
I hear a lot about the major powerhouses in investment banking (GS/MS/JPM) and I saw an article the other day which sparked this thread about JPM LevFin being one of the most prestigious jobs in the world of finance. So I dug a bit deeper and pretty much everywhere I read also mentioned how in the world of LevFin, JPM rules. I am aware JPM LevFin does the modelling themselves where as most other banks outsource the modelling to coverage/sector teams.. but I was wondering if anyone had any idea as to what it would be like to work in LevFin at a place like JPM or other bulge brackets, what the hours are like (do you start early in the morning/work until early hours of the morning like in M&A during the weekdays and are you required to work during the weekend considering in DCM you rarely do), how it compares to M&A or sector/coverage teams, is levfin more capital markets based or corporate finance based, is there as much travel in LevFin as there is in M&A, are there different teams within LevFin?
Thanks!
The hours are broadly comparable to other parts of the IBD. The hours can be long, but the workload is unpredictable. You could get a call on Thursday from a client saying they want a package by close of play on Friday. It’s the nature of investment banking.
That said, we’re making a conscious effort to not keep people in the office unnecessarily – to that end, initiatives exist like protected weekends. To give an example, we recently had an e-mail from a senior banker on Friday evening noting that there were too many juniors in the office and we should tell them to leave. We take it very seriously.
The key is not to stay in the office unnecessarily. There’s a lot of activity now, but we’ve just come out of a very slow period. We don’t want to keep people in the office if they don’t need to be here, and it’s up to everyone to be sensible about their schedules and to catch their breath when they can.
Hope this helps.
Jamie