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  • Associate 1 in IB - Cov
5mo 

Be more specific. What sort of "power" and rankings are you looking for? PE exits, Dealflow, WSO street cred? Copy/pasted from another thread:

BB

BofA - Automotive, Agriculture, and other midwest general coverage. ~30-40 people (5 MDs).
Barclays - Tech-Enabled Services & Industrial Services. ~20-30 people (2 MDs).
Citi - FIG, Automotive, Metals & Mining & other Industrials. M&A team also sits here. ~40-50 people (4 MDs). 
CS - Business Services & Industrial Services. ~20-30 people (2 MDs). 
JPM - Automotive & other Industrials (building materials, paper & packaging). M&A team also sits here. ~20-30 people in coverage (2 MDs)
GS - Industrial Tech, FIG, Education, and general midwest coverage. (3 MDs)

EB

Evercore - Paper & Packaging. ~10 people (1 MD). 
Moelis - FIG, Paper, general midwest coverage and Food/Bev. ~20 people. (4 MDs)
PWP - Automotive & general midwest coverage. ~20 people (2 MDs)

  • Intern in IB - Cov
5mo 

HL and Laz also have presence in CHI

  • 1
  • Intern in IB-M&A
5mo 

FWIW, the global head of industrials for HL works out of Chicago 

  • Analyst 1 in IB - Cov
5mo 

HL has a strong Food & Bev team in Chicago, and Lazard has RX, which is also solid. They have M&A too, but I don't think they do execution in this office. 

  • 2
  • Intern in IB - Cov
5mo 

I'm pretty sure lazard m&a executes out of chicago given their staffing structure

even the BBs mostly execute the deals they originate out of CHI

I'm not sure where the rumor that CHI was just for pitch shops originated but it's misleading-lots of BB cov groups in NY are just pitch shops in the sense that modelling is outsourced to M&A group. Most likely if the nyc counterparts are pitch shop cov groups then CHI will be a pitch shop but if the nyc counterparts execute then the CHI group also executes

having said that, there are some MDs in CHI who don't have their own analysts in chi and are responsible for sourcing deals, but that won't affect you at the analyst level since they do their own thing

  • 2
  • Analyst 2 in IB - Gen
4mo 

Citi Industrials and M&A just moved to Jefferies. New office for the firm, so would put Jefferies right there given the group head and other MDs moved over with him. 

  • Analyst 2 in IB-M&A
5mo 

It could be difficult to get an exact ranking. Each year it would often depend on the strength and ability of the candidates themselves.

Likely can categorize by different tiers, however.

  • Summer Associate in IB - Cov
5mo 

Tiers would be lovely

  • 2
  • Prospect in IB - Cov
5mo 

Raymond James also has a presence in Chicago. Mainly Industrials there and some from their Tech group which is strong.

  • Summer Associate in IB - Cov
5mo 

This seems pretty accurate if you move Jeff down

  • 1
5mo 
storageaccount, what's your opinion? Comment below:

Any break down of like smaller boutique banks in Chicago (non-EB or big MMs)

  • Intern in IB-M&A
5mo 

I've heard Blair is great place, but they appear to be way down in 2022 rankings (talking transaction value) compared to a place like Gugg (31 bil vs. 13 bil). Does something like this matter? Or does Blair just do a lot of smaller deals, which means Blair bankers get a lot of reps (which can actually be a plus for Blair -- 100 deals for Blair, vs. 35 for Gugg)?  

Controversial
  • Summer Associate in IB - Cov
5mo 

More accurate Ranks. Tiers not in order btw.

Tier 1: Blair, Baird, HL, Gugg, Citi

Tier 2: JPM, CS, GS, Solomon, BMO

Tier 3: BofA, Piper, Lazard, Barclays, Macquarie

Tier 4: Ray J, BGL, PWP, Greenhill, Jefferies

Tier 5: dogshit banks (Lincoln, Truist, Stifel, Stout, Oppenheimer, etc) and super small offices (Rothschild, PJT, Moelis, Evercore)

  • 7
  • 14
  • Intern in IB - Cov
5mo 

wtf is this a joke? how are you ranking bmo above lazard and on par with gs? Laz chi rx exits are very much on par with Laz ny rx exits

  • 1
  • Associate 1 in IB - Cov
5mo 

Is this some satire post? Prospects, do not listen to users like this. Go network and do some research because this is classic blind leading the blind here. Of course it's made by a summer associate. Zero context provided and I can vouch for most of this list being wrong on any metric. For example, Lincoln is literally headquartered in Chicago and churns out a ton of work. 

  • Analyst 2 in IB - Cov
5mo 

You probably work at Solomon bro..

  • 2
  • Analyst 1 in IB-M&A
4mo 

who would take baird over moelis or evercore chicago?

  • Intern in IB-M&A
1mo 

Bmo that high is wild

  • Analyst 1 in IB - Cov
5mo 

Rothschild has an office there. I know some people, and they say it's super sweaty compared to New York. Idk about deal flow though. 

  • Analyst 1 in IB-M&A
3mo 

Any other insight on Roth's Chicago office? Have been recruiting there for a FT lateral and would really appreciate the insight!  

  • Analyst 1 in IB-M&A
4mo 

while many say blair and baird in the same sentence, i think they shouldn't be compared. pedigree of the analyst is very different (think non-targets at baird) blair recruits not only from midwest targets but also ivies 

  • 4
  • 4
  • Associate 2 in IB-M&A
4mo 

because most people judge the bank on results rather than the inputs. They are virtually identical models of each other. Private. Strong sellside in the UMM with strengths in certain sectors

Nobody gives a shit if an analyst went to a better school that doesn't make the bank better lol

If kid with a 4.0 from wisco is doing the same deals at the same level as some dude from Cornell who tf cares and how does that differentiate the bank? Insane WSO level of thinking

Funniest
4mo 
DayMan247, what's your opinion? Comment below:

That mf thinks the Dolphins are better than the Bills because Tua went to Bama and Allen went to Wyoming

Array
  • 8
  • Analyst 1 in IB-M&A
4mo 

valid point but do you think people would take baird over evercore/moelis chicago

  • Analyst 1 in IB - Cov
4mo 

Do Chicago EB or BB firms have better hours or is it generally the same?

  • Analyst 1 in IB-M&A
4mo 

and what about comp?

  • Anonymous Monkey's picture
  • Anonymous Monkey
  • Rank: Chimp
4mo 
Anonymous Monkey, what's your opinion? Comment below:

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  • Analyst 1 in IB-M&A
4mo 

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  • Associate 2 in IB - Cov
4mo 

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