My boyfriend works in consulting and it's pretty common for consultants to be "on the beach" which just means they are not currently staffed on a billable project. Usually new consultants complete training or small tasks. Is this also a common practice in IB for analysts? Does it depend on the bank or is it standard across the industry?
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Unfortunately if you're not staffed on a live deal as an Analyst, it typically means that your days will be spent completing long-shot pitches for business you wont win or doing random research projects for MDs that ultimately have no impact on anything. I'd far rather be doing actual deal-work, even if it means I have to stay late a few nights a week, than be bored as hell most of the time with a few wild-goose chase type of tasks thrown in.
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Agree on the live deal work and I think that comes with the fact that there is a deadline that you are working towards. A Pitch can get as robust as an MD thinks it needs to be.
So true. Also find some of these pitches have the most bespoke analysis since MDs are trying to find a new angle to interest the company.
Once spend weeks working on a pitch - MD was trying to pitch an LBO well north of $100B. Wish I could have sat in on that meeting
was this far enough in the past that you can tell us what the idea was?
lmao please tell us more
Im pretty sure it’s “on the bench” not “on the beach”
It is. Not sure where beach came from lol. Beach doesn’t even make sense
The vernacular in consulting is in fact, "beach."
Roommate works in consulting, people definitely say bench too.
Consultants: Their recommendations might not be innovative but the buzz-phrases they express them in sure will be!
Depends on the firm. Most places use bench but at least Bain & BCG (that I know of) use beach
So does McKinsey. I just used the term I have heard. Never worked in consulting so not really sure.
it's a consulting term which means that you're not staffed and thus can go chill on the beach
bitch
Bankers are only on the beach when there is no market, which is rare since as a coverage banker you have a suite of products to choose from. This holds different for product groups. Right now, ECM teams are probably on the beach
It's possible but very unlikely. The only scenario in which I know it could happen is if all the MDs are busy with live deals that you're not staffed on. Could be that you were on some deals that rolled off, and while you were staffed on those a bunch of new deals came in and were staffed up without you when you were at capacity. But it's really only when the MDs are too busy to go out and pitch / source which is very unlikely. And even then you'll probably get some kind of internal admin / screening work to do.
Or maybe if there's just not a lot going on in the market and you're in a product group that doesn't pitch as much, but then you're at risk of being laid off unless there's an expected increase in market activity in the future.
I’ve had 1-3 week occasions where I’m between deals and all of my accounts are silent (top BB top group so it does happen). This market is pretty unique tho
What group if you don’t mind me asking?
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