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Deal flow wise or culture wise? Can't speak to the latter, but the banks in Houston that seem to lead every A&D process are (in no particular order): Jefferies, TPH, RBC...Citi was in this group about 6 months ago until they lost half their team. This differs from corporate level deals of which I'm not as familiar with but I've seen JPM and BAML show up on a couple of press releases. Houlihan and Guggenheim (ex Citi team) are in a perpetual state of trying to build out their team (1 year away from being 1 year away)...once upon a time Moelis and Evercore were killing it but I haven't seen them on anything in awhile...Wells lost their head of A&D but is usually in most bakeoffs because their corporate bank leads most RBLs. 

 
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See my response above. I personally really like the team there. It's just really hard for them to break in to A&D mandates because Jefferies and TPH (and RBC to a somewhat smaller extent) all have such a strong foothold in the different basins. They're essentially building the book of business from scratch which is damn hard to do. Wish them luck, but a lot of turnover because they keep pitching and missing. 

 

Would generally agree, and think this is solid advice. Personally would say RBC is added to a lot of things not as a primary advisor, but tacked on because of their large lending capability—know this to be the case on a few major midstream G&P deals, less certain about upstream but wouldn’t surprise me. That said they’ve been on so much on either side recently that even if this is the case, it’s hard to discount just how much experience you’d get.

Also, friends don’t let friends work at JPM, but I don’t know OP, so would just say through a combination of expertise and balance sheet they’ve been on a lot of the big recent closes eg. MTDR / Advance, FANG / Lario, MRO / Ensign ect. Sucky culture though, but not exactly a very high bar in Houston, generally.

From what I know Evercore has been on some recent stuff, Jefferies is always strong, and TPH is a little light this year, but owns the royalty space and has had a lot of previous leading experience in A&D, as well as a growing presence in renewables.

 

Looking at your post history, you seem confused with the way things work and are going about this the wrong way - your prior posts talk about doing a non-target MBA and thinking about analyst jobs. Analyst role is very strictly for undergrads, MBA feeds into associate level roles but for MBAs, banks recruit from a very short list of schools, especially in this slower hiring market. Unless you are at one of the ~5-10 schools that Houston banking recruiting targets, no shot.

You should focus your efforts on getting into a smaller boutique and lateraling up. The best IBs in Houston are simply not going to take someone from a random MBA program when they all went to one of those aforementioned schools + have a line of 30 highly qualified Rice MBAs out the door.

Not trying to mean, just realistic, unless your post history is inaccurate your options are really not wide open like you think.

 

I’m absolutely okay with starting at a boutique shop, I am just desperate to get a start. My thoughts are that if I get get in somewhere I can pay my dues and work towards a better job. I will say I’m absolutely bewildered that me getting a MBA and already having graduated from my undergraduate is a bad thing. Going through school I always thought my best way would be to get a MBA and then start looking at entry level positions since I would theoretically have a leg up education wise. However I learned about WSO too late and am now paying the price.

I asked about the best places In Houston as a way to learn who the best are and to then dive into research on what they look for and try and develop skills to target them specifically.

Thank you for your reply, I’ll start researching what boutique firms are in Houston.

 

Speaking of boutiques, try networking with the guys at Detring, TenOaks (although they are Dallas-based), and maybe Opportune....they are in the small cap A&D space (usually minerals and non-op / $5-$50MM deal size) but have a lot of deal flow that'll earn you reps. I've seen a couple of guys I worked with at Detring end up at Jefferies or in senior level finance positions at PortCos. 

 

Placed at a bulge in Houston, currently at a non-target on the East Coast. Anything is possible.

 

Intern in Non-profit

Placed at a bulge in Houston, currently at a non-target on the East Coast. Anything is possible.

I’m very pleased to hear this. Are you FT or in an Internship?

 

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