Blair WLB
What is the lifestyle like at Blair, specifically in their tech group? What are the hours like for associates and how much weekend work is there?
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Bump
I know most of WB is in Chicago but what are the teams like in NYC?
Isn’t much mostly capital markets?
NY is a bit of everything- not a ton of juniors there, it’s mostly MDs but pretty much all groups represented.
Bump
Bump
good buddy worked there in the hc group and it sounds like a typical ib experience from an hours perspective. Got worked super hard and was tired of banking by the time his 2 years were done.
Have several friends in that group, a solid group in terms of deal flow. You'll be doing a lot of SaaS rollups in the MM space. Saturdays are protected and most Friday nights are off. Also as previously mentioned, Chicago is the main office. NYC is a regional office and is mainly seniors who are there to maintain client relationships with some of the New York based funds.
How are their hours? Do they work all day Sunday?
All saturdays are protected???
Saturdays are protected? Is this new?
Bump. Looking for an associate/vp perspective.
Anything?
Oxymoron
Well I’m a relative basis.
Depends who you work with and the transaction you are on. Tech is going to be sweaty just because the group is on a tear. Generally it seems people had Friday evenings off, Saturday's protected, some work (3-5 hours) on sunday's. It's not a lifestyle group by any means, but I think there are certainly worse groups at Blair or in banking broadly.
The truth is, most places you have a tradeoff between dealflow and hours. Want great deal flow? You will work a lot. Want WLB? Great you won't get great experience. Culturally there is some variance with general understanding that the midwest + Boston are the most cushy and other offices are more brutal in terms of culture. That said, as mentioned on this forum, the firm cross staffs all the time so it's very possible/likely to work with each office during an analyst or associate tenure.
One thing I would mention that was a big difference I noticed culturally from my time there and comparing notes with friends: it is very very very hard to be a useless associate in that group. I think this likely is true for EB's/MM's in general, but there were a lot of people let go or pushed out when I was there who lateralled from BB's that were used to a more cushy less hands on role and very quickly they were identified as being deadweight. I'm sure WB analysts have gripes with associates (as I did when I was there), but the uselessness of BB associates seemed to be in another league. Only reason I bring it up is I think if your goal is to have more WLB, go to a BB as an associate.
I appreciate the response. Any insight on the ATL office?
Didn’t exist when I was there. Know it’s a bunch of truist guys that were poached though and if I remember the headline correctly it was a fintech guy and tech services guy. Don’t quote me on that though.
How late did associates work on an average night?
Kinda to my point above—I didn’t see it get much better for associates baring the ones that were ex-analysts just being very efficient and knowing how to manage their time and a process and expectations properly.
I think it culturally was very much not cool for associates to be dumping work on analysts and felt associates worked pretty similar hours to analysts. The ones that didn’t had the org turn on them pretty fast. Kinda goes to my point of being an associate that doesn’t get a model or PowerPoint seemed to be a much bigger problem at WB than other places I have heard. If you have too much of a slippery desk as an associate, word gets around and given the org has so many people that have climbed the ranks it isn’t taken very well. So, 9am-12:30am M-Th, Friday’s off at 6pm, some Sunday work. Course the job is very cyclical in terms of work, so I’m sure there were chill weeks and hell weeks in there. Also, mileage I’m sure varied based on how well people could manage. I’m sure as an associate you could tell your analyst to work as you ate dinner or lifted for example. That said, I worked with a bunch of different teams and while it’s definitely a bias having been in the analyst seat, to me it always felt like my associates were split in acting and effectively being more like worse senior analysts (usually those just out of mba were better than A1’s, but not nearly as sharp as the senior analysts) or they ran the process and were effectively the VP as the real VP was busy with another process (usually a to a’s).
Which groups at Blair have worse WLB than tech?
Since this seems helpful for some people—one other point I wanted to address was advice I was given prior to my stint that I think is excellent professional advice not given enough: “define your professional brand”
I’m a huge competitive strategy nerd and one of the things I find most insightful about competitive strategy comes from porter who largely articulates two points (among others): 1) strategy is defining what you don’t do 2) attempting to excel at every area is often brand diminishing.
As a professional, try to think about the way you want to competitively position and what you will choose to differentiate on. As an analyst, I early on recognized I was smart enough to do the work and decided my brand was going to be being smart. That sounds simple and arrogant, but I tried to assist others in finding better ways to do things and gained a rep for being “the guy” to figure out complex things. I also was known for pushing back and refusing to do work I didn’t think made sense. Some analysts tried to differentiate themselves as “the hardest worker”. I think that is poor competitive strategy and it largely is a race to the bottom. The winner might get top bucket, but candidly I know I could get a reference from about anyone I worked with and I was really able to stay sane my entire stint. Meanwhile, I was certain there were people who went for the hardest working, fell short, and ended up with a rep as just a middling analyst without anything remarkable about their work product. My advice, try to position yourself and be known for one trait above others. A few examples:
1) Being a positive person—there are some analysts that this is literally their whole brand. They never complain and are great to work with. Again, sounds simple, but if you are the “have a great day! Guy/girl you could prob be a crap analyst and get mid bucket because everyone likes you.
2) A machine —you never make mistakes. You can actually afford to be slow, but if you never make mistakes people will be like that person is wicked. Personally, I found this to be too much of a hassle, but I’m sure for someone hyper detail oriented and organized, this might be easier than being the positive chatty office person.
3) Smart guy/girl—know what goes on in the firm, know about other people deals and see the big picture. Also, try to step up on the most complex analyses. Again, this isn’t always something everyone can do, but for me I realized positioning here made the most sense for my skill set and how I come across.
4) PowerPoint guy/girl. When everyone is worried about layouts or has no clue how to fix a graph, you are the go-to person. Again, sounds simple, but being the graphic design person in the office is actually a huge rep that is valued.
There are others, the bigger point I am making is you can’t beat everyone and be the best at everything. The analysts that try to win in every category I find usually struggled and felt overwhelmed. Try to improve in every area, but try to pick a niche and own it. Don’t be Wendy’s competing with BK and McDonald’s, be Chick-fil-A with the best chicken sandwich in the game and everyone knows it (even if you decide to be closed on sundays and not make burgers)
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