Best Hour Groups on the Street?

What are the best groups on the street, in terms of number of hours and general respect of time by senior bankers?

Any and all input is appreciated!

59 Comments
 

Agree with this, regional boutiques are a good option if you're focused on WLB

Reality is that hours and deal flow are correlated and that any BB/EB group with low deal flow will be under serious pressure, pitch all the time, and/or get some senior talent added which will bring the hours up. I'd look for a mid-ranked group with kind MDs. Pay attention to the VPs - do they have families, or are they all bachelors? This is my litmus test of how much the group takes over your life

 

Better yet,  If your directors or VP take vacation can they actually tap out or are they working the entire time.  

Many people can have a family but without seeing the dynamics you don't know how good or bad it is.  Where as a vacation is a good gauge.  My director is literally scheduling calls during her vacation and said " you just can't get away can you" 

 

Hands down it’s the euro banks. Credit at, rabbo, BNP, soc gen, etc.

These carry seniors that couldn’t hack it at the sweat shops or had no desire too. The juniors are all people who couldn’t get into the big places. When I worked at a euro bank my pay per hour was probably higher than a kkr associate.

Literally those banks are happy to never lead and just get passive titles all day. And the euro are all into life balance stuff. I’m sure some groups there suck, but my experience was a dream. If I didn’t have to leave cause my group blew up, I never would have left.

 

Generally agree with the exception of maybe lev fin product group. From experience working alongside on of the euro places (Credit Ag, BNP, ING), they obviously look to lend heavy given their credit appetite so they're pretty slammed with decent amount of group turnover which im sure makes things worse. But even then, would say still better WLB than lev fin at the BBs. Also for vaca they actually require you to use most of your vacation time and completely disconnect.

 

Totally inaccurate. A quick search and you’ll see MDs along with juniors coming from BBs (albeit mid to low tier ) over to euro banks because they want the work life balance and among other things. To say they couldn’t make it in these banks is not true. In fact, if you look at some of the exits from the lev fin team and project finance you’d be surprised how decent they place. I will say the only downfall is they do pay at a discount relative to their peers but I’d rather take the haircut and get 20 vacation days and actually get to use them rather than being crushed constantly.

Source: I work at one of the said banks

 

Hey, I’m not knocking you because like I said I loved working at the euro bank, but c’mon man. Keep it real.

No one leaves the top banks for the junior tiers. All my seniors at the euro bank share their stories over long trips or late nights in the office. Every single one of them had to leave and come to the junior leagues.

I don’t understand why people can’t be brutally honest over the anonymity of an Internet forum and have to pretend.

 

Agreed. Other people here are mentioning going to European banks and low tier banks for good WLB. Alternatively, you could join a sponsor group at top tier bank and have relative great hours without compromising exit opportunities. The common complaint is you dont learn much in sponsor group because coverage and M&A team take most the work, but a lot of the learning comes from PE prep anyway. Also who cares because the sponsor group placement is really strong. 

 

Unbelievably sweaty spot. Very solid deal flow but no reason for hours to be so much longer than similar boutiques in Houston besides Jeff. 

 

Sabrett's Hot Dog Stand Division

Pro: Good hours; Con: Mandatory fluency in Arab.

 

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