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Lincoln - industrials team is head and shoulders above the rest followed by business services but would avoid this place - kind’ve a joke
WB - fired a bunch of people a few years ago and a shadow of what it once was. Seems to be building back. Surprising amount of assholes in some groups here but overall a solid place. Some groups punch above their weight (tech) while most others lag
Baird - has some extremely sweaty groups (industrials) but solid place and good people
HL - has some sweaty groups (consumer and hc) but office has good people and great deal flow. Just bought Waller helms so will have a fig team joining
Jeffries - have heard the hours are good
BGL - Avoid.
Guggenheim - newer, mostly do IT services - have MDs that came over from WB
Add soloman and Lincoln is a very solid bank.
Gugg Chi started with IT Services, but has expanded into Professional and Commercial services by poaching Blair / RJ / Lincoln / JPM MDs.
Sure Lincoln has a solid Industrials group but certainly not better than Baird's... Gotta be a joke, right?
Head and shoulders above the rest of their groups not competitors
Piper has a small office in Chi. I have a buddy there and he says culture is very good FWIW.
Any specific group?
HC has good vibes
The office is mainly HC, DCM and FIG. Looking at LinkedIn, looks like they have a very small industrials team there too but can’t tell much else.
RJ has a growing presence with decent WLB. Tech & services and security & safety are good groups in terms of deal volume and size but may be a bit more sweaty
Thoughts on HL in Chicago?
meatgrinder im told
Depends on the group but some are definitely a complete meat grinder
Blair has historically run Chicago. Had a rough few years but them and Baird are still the top MM shops there, Gugg too if you want to count them as MM.
Gugg Chicago mostly competes with MM firms. Punches in the HL / Blair / Jeff bracket out of the chicago office, but dominates IT / professional services.
KBW and Stifel have a small but strong office in Chicago. Groups are FIG (KBW), Industrials and Tech. WLB is better than NYC average, but I think that’s pretty common for Chicago offices generally.
Anyone have any insight on Truist’s industrials/services group in Chi?
HL F&B team is extremely good
Baird Industrials and Blair Tech and Services run Chicago
But it would appear that both are very sweaty no?
Baird Industrials is regular 3am nights.
Blair is more chill and last year was very, chill and that was represented in the $0k bonuses.
Have multiple friends at both.
Perspective is about 2-3 years outdated. Replace Blair with Gugg and you’re correct. Gugg Chicago was started by Blair’s top 2 rainmakers for MM IT services. Source: see the bonus figures last year
Yeah, I don't even think it's close at this point -- Gugg getting lot more deals than Blair at this point, and Gugg bankers getting lot more bucks.
Fair enough - was not privy to Guggs uprival but good to hear.
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