Best/worst hours on the street? (Australia)
Which BB's and EB's have the best and worst hours in Australia? Insights into culture would also be interesting. I heard EB's are generally longer than BB's.
Which BB's and EB's have the best and worst hours in Australia? Insights into culture would also be interesting. I heard EB's are generally longer than BB's.
Have heard Gresham partners have pretty decent hours.
Same with Flagstaff I believe.
Considering they hardly do deals, I’d fucking hope hours aren’t shit
Have heard their hiring processes are not very meritocratic.
I heard the exact opposite. Heard they were very sweaty, lot of hours similar to other boutiques like Moelis / Luminis / Jefferies
Huge burnout in the boutiques you mentioned (jefferies/luminis/moelis). Terrible cultures with many analysts leaving less than 6 months into the role
Have heard first hand from some Gresham people that hours and culture are good. However, have heard that Moelis, Jeff and Luminis are terrible for hours and culture.
Could you please elaborate on Gresham? Maybe over DM if you’d prefer?
Super interested in it.
Bump
Have heard Citi has good culture.
JPM is very sweaty.
Keen to hear about this a bit more.
JPM being low(er than usual) on the league tables would tell me it's mostly marketing?
Culture is highly subjective and can vary right down to differing MDs in the same group. General anecdotal evidence:
Worth noting overall that Aus hours are generally better than London/NYC so a bad week at for e.g. JPM here may equate to a standard week at JPM overseas.
What does an average week look like for yourself? and what are weekends like? Just trying to benchmark to see if I have it good or bad.
60-80 hours average. 100 in the tough weeks. 1 day weekends pretty consistently albeit often a relaxed couple hours.
Heard anything about Allier?
Not much info available on small LMM boutiques. I don't imagine the hours would be too bad though (low deal flow, not much 'pitching' seeing they would lose most pitches to bigger places).
Lot of pre pen interns there heard it was pretty sweaty/manual for interns.
adding to this post:
Citi - group dependent, heard the infra IB is getting absolutely destroyed right now along with RBC's infra team (consistent 3am+)
Maccaps infra advisory equally as bad if not worse
BJ culture probably good but given their enormous dealflow i can't imagine the hours being any good
Rothschild - sweatshop
Jefferies - avoid like the plague
ICA - good culture but getting crushed atm
do you have any more info on those firms generally? particularly the ones less well known in the overall market but strong in infrastructure (RBC, Rothschild, ICA) - looking to make the move into infra IB and those names stood out as preferred spots (aside from Macquarie)
Anyone heard anything about BofA here? Don't hear much
BofA - long hours and lot of juniors turnover (saw ppl quitting before 1.5yrs)
UBS - used to be one of the worst before everyone left. Seniors work long hours and flows down to juniors
MS - not as bad
JPM - pretty bad juniors have to come in pretty early vs other banks
How up to date is your BofA info? Seems like they have had a revamp over the past couple of years.
3-6mths old my close mate works at BAML
Yeah really long hours but I guess along with that is great learning
Heard the BOFA infra team their is horrid - consistent 100 hour weeks, no breaks
Not sure about the actual hours, but definitely one of the sweatiest groups at the BofA along with FIG. Although, assume this is the same at all banks.
Lmao that's what working on Optus towers would do to you.
Welcome to banking, kid.
Citi??
Grant samuel known to have one of the best cultures in Aus
Have heard mixed things re: Grant Samuel. Sounds like hours are very dependent on the MD you work with -- stories I heard about one MD made it sound quite sweaty. Also know people that went through interview processes and said it was very unprofessional.
yeah have been hearing they been cutting candidates at final round due to psychometric testing recently which i felt was odd
I can attest to the interview process being very weird and unprofessional.
HR was all over the place, one of my interviews was just some assoc./analyst speaking about how he started working their from big 4. Seniors in final round seemed to not give a shit the whole interview. People I networked with were... 'unpolished'.
They also seem to do weird work. Fairness opinions, vague debt advisory... gave me the vibe of a boutique professional services firm that calls themselves an IB.
I heard they do lot of fairness opinions rather than executing deals
suprising amount of turnout in this thread. I wonder how many kids across aus seriously recruit for syd/mel offices a year? maybe like 50-60 ?
Do you mean the number of interns hired each year across the country? for reference, most of the larger BBs hire around 10-12 and some of the EBs and other smaller banks hire around 2-5. Obviously Sydney far more than Melbourne.
do you know if most analysts want to go transfer abroad? like nyc/london/hk
We just had 2k applicants for summers. With ~12 SA positions nationally and from that maybe 8 grads it's pretty brutal in Aus.
how many of those had a halfway decent resume? 150?
It's tougher than other markets simply because of the lack of seats, but I'd still say the competition is substantially weaker than the US or UK.
My theory is that this stems from the lack of competitiveness in local college applications - anyone who passes high school can basically go to any school in Australia or New Zealand - so you don't have an abundance of ridiculously strong candidates who've been working with admissions councilors to hone their profiles since junior high. In my experience anyone who had a top GPA (HD average in Australia, 7.5+ in NZ) got an interview for SA basically everywhere they applied, and plenty more were interviewed with weaker stats than that.
I'm a case in point. I graduated with the equivalent of a 3.7 but was dragged up by great grades in my final year, so I know my GPA was lower than that when I went for SA roles. Didn't have anything remarkable on my resume apart from an internship at a small, local brokerage - no scholarships, no standout ECs, no Big 4 TA internship. Still got to the final rounds at two BBs, and I know I had one in the bag if not for something regrettable I did at the "getting to know you" drinks with the team. Then when I applied for grad roles a year later I got to final rounds at two other banks.
can anyone provide some colour on the typical return rates across the street? pre-covid + 20' would be appreciated
80-90% from what I know
is this 2020 or pre-covid?
90% at my BB for most recent intern class.
is this 2020 or pre-covid?
100% for past two yrs at my BB
Very high - those who didn't return left for another industry (but was offered chance to return)
Citi is generally the highest with mid 90's, Goldman is by far the lowest with around ~50% (they do this intentionally).
CS/MS is also rlly high
Wtf GS 50%? Is that true? I thought most ANL / ASO were SA as well - is that just last summer or historical?
Moelis, Nomura and BofA - Terrible hours
I think Jefferies also sounds pretty bad from other analysts/assocs but their culture seems much better than those aforementioned
Any insights on the three mentioned?
I've heard terrible things about Nomura from multiple sources - very marketing heavy, long hours, below street pay, bankers actively seeking to leave - could see them leaving Aus very soon and following the Barclays model of exclusively underwriting Jarden's deals.
Have a good mate at Jefferies - they noted there's not a social culture and its top-heavy but that the hours aren't sweatshoppy at all (10pm finishes on average). Pay also seems to be on higher end of spectrum.
I agree Nomura is in a weak spot, but they have grown head count by hiring a few analysts and assocs recently
10pm finishes on average for Jefferies sounds pretty good tbh... compared to 12-1am average finishes at current bank
Any insights on Deutsche Bank?
Super strong in levfin, but pretty weak in elsewhere. Losing bankers at a pretty rapid rate.
I interviewed there quite a while ago everyone that I met left by now. They have 4 teams: GI, NatRes, Real Estate and I forgot the last one.
.... levfin?