Centerview Partners

Exit Ops are good, but the people at centerview look to hire people for the long term that said, few people wind up leaving, and even if you do, you might have problems getting a reference letter

my friend who left centerview a year ago now attends m7- he said that it has a pretty good rep everywhere since the analyst intake is only a handful of people each year (5-10)

Know a guy who did a year there before moving to a top buy-side fund. Centerview is well regarded, but they do have less of a 2 year and out culture, and whatever consequences come with that.

don't they pay basically what PE firms do at the junior levels? (have heard close to 200k for first year analysts, though that might be wrong)

My buddy works there and he says it's a bit of a sweatshop

Most of this information is so wrong. Centerview has ~15 analysts/class. They don't make $200k in their first year, unless you include their massive signing bonus. If you include the signing bonus in first year comp, pay barely increases in the 2nd and 3rd years. That said, comp is still excellent, and is definitely top of the Street. They usually come in ~$20k (or more) above BX, which is #2 on the Street.

Sweatshop reputation is true. However, analysts are usually assigned to accounts, so if the account is quiet, the lifestyle can actually be quite good.

It's still too early to know about the exit opps. The analyst program is 3 years. One guy went to KKR, but that was the year the megafunds went after the middle market shops -- so a bunch of people who would have never gone to megafunds under normal circumstances wound up with offers.

Not sure why you wouldn't include the signing bonus. It's still real money. Happy to take it off your hands if you disagree. Secondly, how is BX top of the street when they pay 70/10? Their bonus surely isn't in the 100 range.

Base is 70K and Bonus is 50K with 3 year clawback?

1st year Base is 80k, signing bonus is 50k (almost all of it clawback if you leave before 3 years), actual bonus is around 70-80k+

expect 100-105 hours/week

So much terrible information going on in here it is ridiculous.

Centerview has a signing bonus of 50k- as was said. If you leave before year 3 you have to return a good chunk of that 50k. Base is 80k and bonus has been 100% of bonus the ,last few years- that puts all in year 1 at around 210k if you put the signing all in year 1. If your average BB analyst is making 15k sign, 70k base, and 50k bonus (maybe high), then that is 135 v. 210 - pretty big difference (obviously this lessens after year 1, but is still in the 30-50k range)

It may be a sweatshop, but there is not a single place where you should "expect 100-105 hours a week," so that is just absolute nonsense. This has been reiterated on here time and time again, but no banker in any group is working an average of 100+ hours- it just doesn't happen. 100 hour weeks happen, but they are not the norm in any group I have ever heard of. On the contrary, I've heard the culture is fairly decent for banking, so not sure if the sweatshop rumors are even true.

Exits are still too early to say. The people I know there are either 1. still there or 2. have gone on to top business schools after 3 years with the firm. Yes, they sent one to KKR- there were also special circumstances surrounding this placement, so I wouldn't look at it as a good example of CV's placement. Generally speaking, they have expanded the analyst class each year, so there have not really been a ton of analysts to start at CV and now leave looking for PE exits. If I had to say (and this is a lot of speculation), the exits would be fine but not currently as strong as their counterparts (Moelis, Evercore, Greenhill, etc.). I would think that this would change as they send more into the recruiting cycle, but it is difficult to say.

Those weekend hours are more than "kinda shitty" IMO

Obviously this stuff is all subjective, and we have our own experience and know people with their own experiences, but this is what I would view as an average week

9am-12am M-Th- = 60 hours Friday 9am-9pm= 12 hours (both here and the above are a bit nitpicky) Saturday- 11am-5pm = 6 hours Sunday - 11am-8pm= 9 hours

This is not looking at my own schedule, FWIW.

Puts you mid 80s, which is what I would consider to be pretty standard across most banks and groups that I am familiar with. Those are very loose 9am start times as well

@kidflash- you are taking a 10 week sample size, and additionally a 10 week sample size where you are without a doubt putting in extra hours for the sake of securing an offer. Wouldn't generalize SA hours too often to FT (sometimes much better and sometimes worse). Mine for example were significantly better than FT.

100 average per week is nonsense lol.

Ok.

If you are in college please stop posting about hours. 100 hour weeks are entirely possible. It's very hard to tell the mean/median. Some people are consistently leaving the office at 2 AM and working weekends, and some are leaving at 11 PM and working one weekend day. It all depends.

^ Nowhere did anyone on here say 100 hr weeks were impossible. The discussion was around groups averaging 100 hour weeks. Read the comments before posting something irrelevant.

There's a big difference between "working" 100 hours versus being in the office for 100 hours...

Yes

Jeffries bro...get with the program

they don't even have a cap on their seamless fckin legends

So what do they do differently that is giving them such an advantage? How hard is it to get an internship there?

I interviewed there for an Associate+ role. Great place, but kids in school need to stop masturbating over it.

• They are retainer on big clients, and do big deals, but those deals are staffed extremely lean (1 analyst, 1 associate, etc). I talked to plenty of people there who said they haven't done a deal in over a year. On the big deals they are co-advisor and sometimes am reduced to a relationship role.

• If youre not on the Pfizer, Kraft, etc account, could literally be pitching for two years. Which isnt a terrible thing given the "smart" level of pitches and deep dives they do, and you learn a TON about corp fin, but I rather have closed deal exp.

• Pay isnt so far above EB median, signing bonus for analysts is larger, but its not like youre going to be balling over your other EB, or BB, banking buddies. EB pay > BB pay.

• They have a lot of structural issues the younger or recently spun-off EBs (PWP, Guggenheim, PJT) have.

• Exit opps are good.

It's getting hard to differentiate the shitposts and the posts by people who just are unfamiliar with finance. I interviewed with them for SA, on-campus, but exited the process because I accepted an offer with another firm. I know 6 analyst-level people there and another 5 who left in the last 3-4 years.

Centerview is a very good firm and gets good deal flow because they have partners with strong connections in certain spaces (Consumer & HC come to mind, although I'm sure there are others), many of whom were poached from BBs since 2011 or so- maybe even earlier.

For analysts you're staffed on accounts as other people have said, which can be good or bad depending on which accounts you are staffed on. Exits are good but they have a 3 year program, and God help you if you choose to leave before those 3 years are up, a la GS. I know two guys at BX PE who did their 3 years and a few others at other MF/top MM PE firms, so they can obviously place just fine.

I think when you compare them to Lazard, Evercore, Moelis, (PJT?), etc. they stack up closely but ultimately aren't as good. It's a very strong shop, but they definitely don't make the other EBs "look average".

I think what really makes CVP stand out and able to take on these big deals is the trust and relationships they have with clients. CVP doesn't have other peripheral services that might be a conflict of interest, they have a HUGE focus on confidentiality, and they really focus on long term client management. The senior bankers all have fantastic connections in the business world. At Centerview, the client comes first in every way, shape or form and that is the most underrated thing in a world that is becoming increasingly distrustful of banks.

I know someone there who is literally a slave. Would never join that place no matter the pay prestige or exits

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Centerview is probably the best if you want to be a career banker but exit opps wise it's not that great

I thought Greenhill, Lazard and Evercore were the three best elite boutiques?

Also, is Lazard even classed as an EB? Surely they're too big in size to be a boutique nowadays

Will confirm Centerview is currently the strongest bank in West Coast healthcare.

Bump

I don't know much, other than they lifted Marc Puntus and Sam Green from Miller Buckfire to start the group a few years ago. I think more MB MDs have left to join the Centerview team, so I'm sure it's pretty strong.

Centerview is EXTREMELY strong. Very underrated and punches way above its weight given its size. Amongst my MBA classmates, centerview is regarded more highly than any other elite boutique. And comp is way above street.

Because many fewer people want to stay in banking, I don't think a lateral would be all that difficult- look at the bios of some of the associates at Centerview- many of them came from significantly lesser firms (HSBC for example). I'm assuming you are at WF, UBS, or RBS (the other 2 are better firms and if I were at either of them I wouldn't lump them with WF/RBS)- I'm sure you could still lateral to a GS/MS but you would likely miss MF recruiting, and it wouldn't be worth it. A top boutique lateral- Centerview, Greenhill, Evercore- would be the easier path is my bet. Interested to hear what other people have to say.

Thanks for the response! That does make sense. Hope to hear some more opinions.

Most analysts at BBs will never get either of the opportunities you discussed, and it's not for lack of trying. What you should be asking is, "How difficult is it to lateral?" not, "How can I choose between to absolute-best-case-scenario-opportunities?" I'm not saying you'll never get these chances, but engaging in hypotheticals like the one you posted isn't necessarily constructive for you.

Anyway, it sounds like the lack of 'preftige' at your future job is freaking you out. If it's UBS, I think you have reason to worry (LAYOFFS!). But if it's not, and I were in your shoes, I'd relax, and spend this semester drinking. You have a great job. Stop trying to find a new one before you start your current one. You might love it there and decide lateraling isn't for you. And for the record, I've heard WF will absolutely make a 3rd year/associate promote available if you're good, if that's your bank.

I acknowledged how difficult these two scenarios are in the first post. Again shooting for the stars my friend. Nothing wrong with that and nothing wrong with being informed.

Bump

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I think you should just wait and decide to see if you like banking, or if you'd prefer to try out PE. And if you decide on PE, you'd probably serve yourself best by setting your sights on MM firms as well as that'll be the more likely outcome.