I have found no luck in the IB internship chase and was wondering what life is like at a small “no name” firm. Think firms with 15-40 people in total. MM. Specialize in a specific industry.
What’s the lifestyle and pay like for analysts?
I appreciate anyone’s insight!!!!!
In a city such as Fort Lauderdale or Miami with relatively small IB community
networked with an MD in one of those cities at a smaller shop and he basically said life is great hahahaha. They work hard, but much better WLB than elsewhere. Not the best traditional exits, but the experience gained in a flatter organization is invaluable IMO
I would imagine the experience is incredible due to the small team size. Do you know if it’s a massive pay gap? Obviously pay isn’t the most important thing to me, but it definitely is something to think about. Thanks for the response!!
Cross Keys?
That’s one Ive been doing some research on. I want to start networking within the firm. Do you know anything about the gig?
no, it's smaller than that I think
In my experience, it completely depends. There are some boutiques out there offering great pay and good wlb, and some where you get worked and paid like shit.
All the BBs/EBs have large analyst classes and operate fairly similarly. Obviously there is variation between groups and banks, but you can at least get a feel for the culture from WSO and what you hear on the street. Going to a boutique is a bigger risk, but if you land in the right place, you could have a a really good seat.
Thanks for the response! Would you say going after a position at a small boutique would be better or worse than taking a low level job at a bb. I have an offer for this summer for a IB ops gig. I’m not sure what the best path is
definitely without a doubt the IB role at a boutique.
Boutique IB 100%
YMMV greatly. I am at one of the boutiques you describe so I'll give you a data point. My firm is a bit weird in that salaries are well above street but bonuses are well below street at the Analyst level. If you demonstrate that you genuinely want to stay and have a long-term career, then you start getting compensated better.
As Associate, the total comp is street-level to meaningfully-above street level depending on how well the firm does. All cash, none deferred. I'm a VP1 and TC was just shy of $500k after several relatively bad years for the firm from a deal flow perspective (many deals died due to the recent volatility). Average 40 - 55 hours a week so can't really complain about WLB (more like 60 avg. YTD though as activity picks back up).
It also depends on what kind of clients you serve and what assignments you take on. Boutiques that are pitch-heavy / sell-side focused can be VERY sweaty. Luckily we are more Centerview-like with a retainer model and a few large public clients mainly doing buyside advisory, so punching above our weight means we can survive perfectly fine on retainers alone even when deals are dry.
Frequently co-advise with a larger BB or EB for deals, which tbh, is a HUGE upside lol. They basically handle all the process work - due diligence, comparing bids, board presentation slide creation, etc. We basically just give a second opinion, aka criticize the shit out of their work since we're on retainer so not incentivized to push bad deals. We'll also do supporting analyses on valuation, pro forma math, investor relations stuff, etc. They get the bigger share of the fee, but with how small we are, we really don't care.
Average deal size is $500 million - $1 billion+ and our entire firm is ~15 active bankers / ~5 support staff, so a deal or two a year on top of $1 million+ retainers from a handful of key clients is more than enough. We also charge separately for certain special assignments (special committee work, activism defense, etc.)
Now the downside are (a) we have little "name power" (we're very low key and not often publicized as advisors on press releases), so exiting into MF PE is very tough, though we've had a surprising amount make it into HF, MM PE, etc., (b) zero protection around weekends, vacations, etc. since we're so lean. If a situation comes up, there's literally no one else to cover so have had to cancel multiple vacations, (c) key-man risk. If one or two of our key MDs decides to leave, we're kinda cooked, (d) if you don't like your client, you have basically no way out unless the client decides not to renew because it's an indefinite retainer model as opposed to a defined project scope.
Thank you for the great response. I really appreciate it. I guess every firm will have its pros and cons. Is there a big culture of analysts staying for a few years and exiting? Or do people stay on board?
Thanks again!!
Luckily, I just pulled together this analysis for my CEO! (I'm staffer assigned to track this)
~20% of our analysts stay to become Associates, though the majority will eventually move on to somewhere else before the Director / MD promotion.
~30% went to private equity
~15% went to hedge fund.
~20% went to corp. dev. (or start-up doing strategy / product / etc.)
~5% lateraled to a BB or EB
~5% founded their own company after
~5% went to grad school
Take these with a grain of salt though. We are an odd group of bankers because our recruiting approach focuses much more on natural quantitative aptitude (much more similar to hedge fund interviews than traditional IB interviews with a lot of probability, mental math, etc.) We also care a lot about the school and GPA.
That results in us hiring quite a few gifted STEM majors that have not experienced real IB before (we don't offer internships). Many end up realizing the hours and unpredictability are more intense than they can handle. Others were big-brain STEM kids that find the work too boring or not sufficiently rigorous (because of course...there's the *art* aspect of finance...lol).
Bump - appreciate the recent buyside perspective. anybody have any data points on the sell side exclusive industry focused shops (15-35 total heads) ? Guessing very varied but any data helps.
Interned at a small "no name" firm last summer, and my experience was great. Did a lot of grunt work but got all the experiences I wanted; if I wasn't getting the type of work that helped me learn, I always just asked, and the analysts were happy to let me take a swing. The firm was involved in almost a dozen transactions at any time so that definitely kept everyone busy and paid.
Do these forms look for high levels of experience due to the small teams, or do they help you progress? I know the technicals and have finance experience, but no direct IB experience. I’m working in IB ops this summer at a BB
Thanks for the info!!
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