I was recently warned by my managers that the firm I’m working at will have firm wide layoffs, just a matter of time before this starts, due to significant down in revenue / investment banking activities across the region.
I don’t think I can survive this as my team is one of the teams that got affected the most this year. Revenue is almost zero YTD.
I’m an associate and have been with the firm for 4 years. Really worried about the potential layoff and I cannot sleep for 7 straight nights.
What should I do about it. Seems recession is real
Start looking for a job down market.
Start recruiting, imo I'd look to jump even if you don't get laid off immediately. Good news is IB market is still strong enough given turnover, esp with 4 years IB experience you should land something pretty quick
As others said, I’d probably look to lateral somewhere else with more deal flow. Are you at an EB, BB, or regional boutique currently?
4 years of IB experience and you are an associate? A2A?
Feel like they will lay off a couple useless MBA associates like myself before you. You’re probably safe. I agree with others though, check the market for laterally opportunities. You are probably a stronger candidate than you think.
Agree - find it suuuuper hard to believe that an A2A would get cut during a downturn. Especially when you consider what their execution/live deal value is for what they cost the firm (relative to, say, a first year VP who's costing the firm more than the A2A and haven't been out of IB juniordom for very long aka not generating fees)
Can you provide more color on your firm and team
i.e. are you on the ecm team of a mid-tier BB or something else
OP is in ECM, not sure if it's a BB or Boutique
What firm is this? BB EB MM Big4?
I’m in ECM / SPAC team at a BB
classic
Sorry to hear that my guy. Any chance you could lateral internally?
damn...
Across the region ie product then?
SPAC team getting cut down to the new rule on SPAC from SEC therefore BB are turning away from doing SPACs. Now MM are running that space, anyways not really a recession issue. I’m sure you can still recruit internally for coverage or other product role.
Juniors usually get placed within other groups if they have a decent standing within their group/organization, assuming you don't find something externally. Growing old within a product team has its negatives of course and you should consider what your transferable skills are in such a scenario, whether you will have to transition internally/externally in a similar role or completely different. SPACs are of course a niche segment of a product group, but banks usually stick to their ECM teams in some form unless you're RBS that needed to be nationalized coming out of the 08/09 crisis i.e. extreme case scenarios.
I'm now thinking if I should move to a different team (sector team) or even move to say equity research.I like financial modelling / thinking / working on slightly more intellectual tasks without having to pull all-nighters constantly.
I'm thinking what such roles I can move to given I'm from ECM/SPAC with less relevant experience. Any thoughts?
Maybe equity research? But this means haircut, and not sure lateral into equity research from ECM/SPAC work, especially I’m 2nd year associate already
Sector team seems fine too but it will be longer hours with more dirty work and little / no modelings. So tough choice.But not like I have offers already;)
You are exactly right that growing old in a product team can be risky and need to think about transferable skills. I'm obviously in comfort zone too long so didn't think about that / moving until now……
Sounds like you're not quite sure where the career journey should lead to or at least continue. Only you can call that shot and make that decision ultimately.
I can share you my experience: I was in a similar senior Associate role for a product group, specifically DCM which is one of the worst in terms of exit opps. I did enjoy my job actually and was "well" taken care off but I see how my seniors were less happy and it seemed like golden handcuffs in a job which isn't highly intellectually challenging. I asked myself where I wanted to be in the coming years (buy-side credit) and worked backwards so I transitioned to Levfin which I wanted to pivot into that plan or reassess later, maybe I would like Levfin (I didn't) or revert to DCM (didn't do that either).
I would encourage you to do a move sooner rather than later - I was being called "too senior" by some headhunters even though I was ~27 years old...such is the nature of the game...
Did you ever think corp dev? It gives you the ability to think critically and model while also doing some strategy related work and driving a companies future? It will absolutely be a pay cut but work life balance is generally pretty solid.
Generally finance job market not looking too good.
Buyside - HF at risk of imploding due to current market conditions, PE is still relatively good position - they just need to delay their exits a bit when bear market is over. Not too sure on Credit and RE, but I'm thinking RE could be in some troubles if demand contraction impact their cashflows. Distressed guys might be in good spot though.
Sellside - looks like M&A and Capital markets will go through layoff. RX is still safe. S&T is mixed, some groups been enjoy great volume, structured products / delta one looks fine given institutions have increasing needs of hedging.
Is M&A activity really dying down? Other threads are saying that a lot of groups are still getting slammed with deals. I could see tech groups having some layoffs but what about industrials or healthcare coverage?
Promise you it’s first and second years who have never been blue balled on a close or realize how low M&A success rate truly is
they can still be busy with pitches, real effect will start to bite in 2H2022
Agreed, have seen exact same. Little research online from industry reports says the same
What is RX
Restructuring
Most FICC teams in S&T are printing money right now. Equity side is definitely looking less robust though.
DB?
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