Genuine Question: why are Pjt and HL RX teams considered better than MoCo RX?
Got to know this recently from some league table info while playing around.
All three above mentioned shops have approx 30 RX deals announced in 2021. Value per deal is significantly higher for Moelis and they have apparently worked on 7 of the 10 largest US restructurings in 2021. Given this, why do people on this forum consider pjt and HL RX teams better?
Ps: I do not work at any of the three above mentioned firms nor do I work in RX. Just genuinely curious about what other factors are in play.
Can't sleep so I will bite this one.
The reality is that when students compare different offers, they are not looking for a shop that leads league table, rather for a great analyst experience and most people consider PJT/HL RX better than Moelis for a variety of reasons:
1. Exits: PJT/HL RX (especially PJT because of their 2-year program) are two of the groups with the best exits on the street. Considering their class size, their placement is ridiculous. For selection bias, most people will aim for distressed/credit arm exits but MF PE is also very double (Houlihan has sent one to APO PE for a few years now)
2. Culture/Hours: I do not work at PJT/HL, but those two have the reputation of having a very good culture and not insane hours. People there are extremely sharp and there is no facetime culture. Let's just say that Moelis is behind on this point.
3. Group selection: you could not recruit specifically for RX at Moelis until this year (believe they have split recruiting starting next year) while you could for the others two. Kids interested in RX would have no reason to do a generalist program rather than one in which they would be certain to have a RX experience. Lazard is an amazing RX platform as well, but because of its generalist program, it is not the goal of most top students interested in RX because of group placement risk.
4. Class size/Reputation: PJT and HL have a 10ish class size and they are extremely selective when recruiting. If you are not at W/H, or part of Global Platinum Securities getting an offer will take insane skills/prep and definitely some luck. I think their small size gives college students an idea of a high reputation that is not comparable to Moelis given their much larger class.
In reality, the experience at the best RX shops (PJT, HL, EVR, LAZ, Moelis) on the job is very similar, but college students (the very few who can pick among these groups) have their reasons to decide what is best.
This hit the nail on the head. The perception from the undergrad level is definitely based on known exits and a few specific individuals that go into RX. Given how tight-knit some of the target schools can be with investment clubs, people will shoot for PJT RSSG just because they see the “smarter” upperclassmen go and not because they’re genuinely fascinated by restructuring. PJT has had a known issue with talent retention at the intern level with almost everyone interviewing/aiming for megafund PE or a SM HF over the summer. HL is better in this regard, but not clean either. Reality is smart kids that know what they want will go where they want, and smart kids that don’t know what they want will default to the firms pitching their exits in a slide show.
From the industry perspective, I will add legacy is a factor as well. HL has been here since the late 1990’s with some of the original notable folk. PJT had spun out of Blackstone’s a couple years back, but I would say Moelis has less of an apparent legacy outside of Ken. There are some deep relationships across the board, but everyone knows about the HL holiday party.
This is exactly true. For PJT RSSG its almost comical how they pretty much recruit from specific clubs rather than universities themselves. The WITG / GPS pipeline is very real and even at the other schools like NYU / Columbia / Georgetown / Notre Dame / Michigan that they fill their non Harvard Wharton spots with are always kids from the same investment clubs at those schools. The underclassmen in those clubs see the best seniors going to the group and immediately it becomes a highly desirable job. The comment about retention is true as well -- the RSSG intern class is literally a fishing pool for all the MF analyst programs especially KKR and Warburg. It's no surprise that its the most desired banking analyst program at the top targets.
This is so spot-on. I went to a top target and was one of the few guys in my class interested in RX freshman year. As soon as PJT/HL came to campus, everyone was reading Moyer and was ready to say RX was their true passion lmao
Fuck MoCo that's why. PJT and CVP are the only "old guards" or ivory towers left in IBD.
Lazard is over 11 times as old as CVP