Centerview Partners

You get paid soooooooooooooooooooo much

Also recruiting for SA, and based on my conversations with some super chill alumni: 

- Heard comp is top, top of the street. It won't be higher anywhere else out of undergrad except if you did like prop trading. You hit $275K in your last analyst year 

- Heard culture is great no facetime. Was told the firm hosts weekly talks with CEOs, activists, politicians, sports players, etc. 

- Heard hours are variable because you're staffed on a couple of firms and simply responsible for those clients over long periods of time. If there's no work to be done for your client, then you have no work and might see 50-hour weeks, but if all your assigned clients require a lot of work, heard you'll get absolutely worked as the sole junior analyst (or one of two) on the team

- Analyst program is three-years. Heard if you stay all three years, senior partners help you out for PE recruiting but it's frowned upon to leave early (I was told it does happen though). If you do leave early, you have to pay back $35K of your $50K signing bonus 

- Heard exits are great. Seems most analysts exit to MF/UMMs and top-tier HFs/Tiger Cubs like Viking, just look at Linkedin. Was told you'll get looks everywhere from most EBs though, and that it ultimately will also come down to your undergrad school, GPA, etc. 

- Heard SF does well for biotech. They recently opened up Paris too after poaching some folks from Lazard Paris and are starting a Chicago office. Don't know more about the non-NY offices but it would appear they're opening up a lot of them

I have come across countless PE firms for sell-sides and have literally never come across a former centerview analyst.

God it's an EB, obviously it'll do fine for PE. Headhunters aren't going to think the Centerview kid knew he wanted to be a career banker at 22. Just look at past threads to see actual exits rather than what someone here "thinks" exits look like, here's one https://www.wallstreetoasis.com/forums/intel-on-centerview-partners 

If the first-year analysts on this thread think a Lazard or Moelis or JPM or even Evercore is going to be placing every single analyst into an UMM+ fund, you're in for a surprise

Bump 

Does anyone know base salary and bonus  for analysts 

My roommate's sister is a first year analyst at CVP and every single night (at like 1 am) she texts my roommate to say "getting crushed at work. will message you in a few hours" Lol 

lol @ people thinking being from Centerview impacts ability to exit.  Can see the recruiter sitting there being like 'it's frowned upon at Centerview to exit so let's not take this guy'.  Perhaps people don't exit as much because you're getting paid better than most PE without having to go through the more structured 'up or out' at top PEs?

Not my original content but the below post from 2018 is pretty accurate, even today and should help shed light on the CVP policy on exits. If you do good work and stay a full two years and still want to recruit, senior partners will go to bat for you and place you.

Source: https://www.wallstreetoasis.com/forums/centerview-vs-pjt-vs-evercore 

Tumultuous Tingler: Centerview definitely rocks you on the hours but the upside is that there is no face time and you are encouraged to go home as soon as your work wraps. Partners just expect you to show up with your game face on when necessary and it tends to be more often than most other shops because teams are lean and the deals tend to be major (average 2-3x the size of next shop). It's true that there isn't much sponsors work but there is enough to go around when you have about 70 analysts across the entire firm. You've got a 3 year program with about 50 (announced) deals per year plus about 15 more undisclosed (first hand knowledge). I believe you make nearly as much in your 2nd analyst year as an average associate at a bulge ($230-50k or so?) and even more as a third year so the thought about jumping to buyside shouldn't weigh much around compensation less a few elite shops that'd end up compensating you better. You just end up on that track a little sooner elsewhere if that's what you want. It's true that they do not support you recruiting out of your first year because it would imply you're breaking contract but they have lead partners meet with analysts to help review resumes ahead of recruiting in their second year (again first hand knowledge). You don't get demonized for wanting to go elsewhere in finance but the unspoken rule is you definitely shouldn't leave to go to lower mm fund in Timbuktu. The firm seems to value their network becoming more expansive in the highest echelon of finance but that's not the worst thing in the world. Pertaining to recruiting, it's very technical but there is a big emphasis on diversity and shift away from target-only recruiting that will likely start to yield results in the next few analyst classes. Historically, the firm has valued scrappy folks but the make up tends to lean heavy towards target schools for sure. Your exits between these banks won't vary too much but historically EVR and PJT tend to have more PEcentric exits. It's tough to measure because CV also has highest A to A retention by a mile (likely a lot due to comp) but also because the culture is very collaborative and you don't want to feel like you're an analyst / cog in a new place all over again (and not even get paid more for it). I'm yet to find out, but I think you have to end up prepping yourself for buyside interviews regardless of where you go and you'll have to sell yourself so we'll see how things shake out for each of the firms this recruiting season and maybe revisit this thread.

Does anyone have any insight on the junior culture / interactions?

Does anyone know what the salary progression is at CVP? For Associates and up? Do they follow the street base pay (150 / 160 / 180 / 200) & $225-250 for VP / Principal? Or is the base lower than the street with bonus hopefully making up for it?