BofA Palo Alto Tech M&A culture & exit?
Curious about how it ranks comparing to BofA nyc tmt team and other BBs/EBs on the west coast in terms of deal flow, culture, and exit. Appreciate any input!!
SD’d a couple years back and know a couple in the office.
Pretty sweaty but great deal flow. They separate Tech Coverage and Tech M&A and at the time I heard the top candidates go to Tech M&A but idk if that’s still true. Pretty difficult interview it was in line with EB interviews. Culture seems ok but imo it’s kinda dry. I knew an intern last year that tried to move to a different group within BofA despite being Tech M&A. Pretty sure their exits are great too. They get on a lot of equity deals and were even trying to get an ECM team in house.
Palo Alto is not the best location for banking. Its kinda built on tech companies and Stanford. There’s a few good bars in the area but it’s an older crowd (think PhD students, researchers, SWE/Tech workers, etc). On top of that it’s pretty pricey and the drive down from SF will definitely take at least an hour each way.
At the end of the day, great place for volume and reps as long as you don’t mind Palo Alto or maybe have a few friends in the area
Thank you very much! That’s super helpful.
I don’t like the whole ranking thing but in terms of deal flow they’re not quite at like GS/MS/Q but they are in line with JPM/EVR/CVP. Im sure someone may disagree but they have very solid deal flow
Echo what starving analyst said on everything and i heard the culture is much better in the recent years. sounds like the analysts are super close with each other.
I know exits have been great, couple folks at Vista and TB and sorts.
ECM desk mentioned above has now been implemented but is very small (1 intern, 1 analyst). M&A are the pencil pushers and exit strong but are siloed in one half of the office and don’t really talk with coverage as much. Coverage is much larger and more sociable and hours are below other comparable banks as of late. However, Palo Alto is truly dead - places like the Patio are really the only nearby nightlife and you’ll need to get to SF to have a good time. I think people who lean introverted and like nature will love it, but if you’re not a west coaster or not all-in on tech you might want to consider other cities.
Very hard to meet other similarly aged people in Palo Alto and the South Bay in general. Even though there’s a ton of internships in tech and everything, I know so many people that make the trek up to SF on the weekends to go out.
Example: saw the same group of apple interns in the Marina District 3 weeks straight. Asked where they live. All said San Jose except for 1. They all rolled their eyes at living in SJ
Now, I have heard rumors of the Palo Alto team moving up to SF but idk what the time horizon is but it seems somewhat serious. If that’s the case, that would be sick for that team. I really think culture would change drastically if they get moved from sleepy Palo Alto to the city
The move to SF was halted after the Palo Alto office got a pretty big upgrade during COVID so they didn’t think it made sense to leave anymore. For the majority of seniors w/ kids, the peninsula is much more livable as well for obvious reasons
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