CDN Bankers: NYC clients are much bigger assholes than CDN clients

Associate 2 at a CDN Bank:

For my couple years in banking I have been staffed mostly on CDN deals, but as I continue I have been pushed into working on deals in the states.

On a recent, really rushed buy side, I was called out of the blue on a Saturday and berated by a client on a financing scenario that just would not be accepted by any sane debt holder. In all my years in banking I have never been called names by my CDN clients and so this really took me aback.

I was talking to the VP out of NYC and he was explaining how people do not have a filter in NYC finance vs the more reserved nature of CDNs and how this can happen a lot.

I am curious, has any one else experienced this? It has really negatively affected my perception of ever transferring to a NYC role.

Side note: we ended up winning the buy side, but this whole situation has really de-motivated me from going above and beyond.

6 Comments
 

As a Canadian that moved down here to NYC for college and now IB, I can confirm that NYC is a whole another tier of ruthlessness, but in a maximum-efficiency, military special forces type of way. Ultra brutal and strict, no filter, get-shit-done attitude. Unseen in any other city; even other major financial cities and hubs like London, Chicago, Houston, LA/SF, Asia, are much more chill/less sweaty. Cultural shock at first but I've adjusted to it by now. 

 

As a Canadian that moved down here to NYC for college and now IB, I can confirm that NYC is a whole another tier of ruthlessness, but in a maximum-efficiency, military special forces type of way. Ultra brutal and strict, no filter, get-shit-done attitude. Unseen in any other city; even other major financial cities and hubs like London, Chicago, Houston, LA/SF, Asia, are much more chill/less sweaty. Cultural shock at first but I've adjusted to it by now. 

I’d disagree with the second part tbh.

I started IB in houston and tbh I got ragdolled by some old school energy clients. Some of the deals I worked on were among the most stressful periods of my life. And I know I was a fairly good analyst / associate.

in my current bank in nyc I’ve not seen anywhere the cutthroat ruthlessness as I’ve seen there 

 

As a Canadian now working / living in the US....I have to say that with Americans, you at least know where you stand with them.  If they're unhappy with you or don't like you, they're more likely to be upfront about it.  Canadians are unfailingly polite and like some other cultures (Swiss and Japanese spring to mind), they can be friendly and polite without actually liking / respecting you.  Neither way is wrong or right but at least in the US, there's a pleasing lack of BS / fluff.

 

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