Guide to LA IB Scene (2025 Edition)

To continue the trend of the posts the past couple of years, and especially given that the LA banking scene has changed quite a bit over the past year, I thought it would be prudent to write up an updated guide coming into recruiting season for all the prospects on this forum.

Pre-Requisites: 

• Target Schools: USC, Berkeley, and UCLA are still the main target schools for LA IB. Obviously being from an Ivy, Stanford, Duke, UChicago, etc. won't hurt you. One caveat is that LA banks generally care deeply about your ties to LA, and most LA bankers who attended East Coast targets are from SoCal.
• Grades: 3.5 GPA required, 3.8+ is competitive
• Resume: 1-2 finance internships, preferably 1 investment banking internship. Given the limited headcount within LA banking, the recruiting scene tends to be a bit more competitive with more expected out of candidates' resumes to stand out.

Process

• LA recruiting generally tends to occur earlier than NY recruiting; last year, LA recruiting at most banks began by mid-late January. If trends hold, recruiting timelines may move up slightly this year.
• LA recruiting also tends to be more networking-based with less input from HR, so getting your networking calls in is paramount
• If you attend UCLA / USC, chances are a lot of the LA banks will host informational sessions or coffee chats at your schools or through certain school organizations. Attend those.

Banks

• Moelis: Still a powerhouse. Technically a generalist shop, but the office is mainly focused on M&A within the TMT and C&R sectors. Great dealflow and exits across the spectrum of fund size, strategy, and geography. The office has historically done very little business development and pitching work compared to live dealflow, so analysts get great live experience at the cost of the office being pretty sweaty. Culture is pretty solid, and is more laid back compared to Moelis NY. Interview process has historically been pretty standard (first round followed by superday).
• PWP: The office has skyrocketed and grown like crazy since COVID. Office covers Industrials, TMT, P&U, with juniors focused on covering Industrials (and rumored to also cover TMT but not sure if that's confirmed; TMT practice is pretty new). Industrials is split between E&C / Industrial Services (more large-cap client-coverage) and A&D (more MM sell-side). TMT practice is led by Lazard LA's media team and is relatively new, but are historically pretty strong and they've been on some large things recently. Office culture is solid, but tends to be more buttoned up than other LA offices (e.g. office dress code is still dress shirt when the standard LA dress code these days is just a polo). Outsources its first round interviews, although I've heard that the analysts have a lot of say in who gets an interview so make sure to network with them. Strong track record of PE placement.
• Houlihan RX: Strong creditor-focused RX shop that is also known for being a pretty tough place to work. Interesting deal flow (lots of HC, Telecom, some LATAM deals), but the group's known to have a pretty toxic culture (seniors who don't care about juniors, mid levels who are always focused on covering for themselves, lots of favoritism). Strong historical placement of exits, especially within the distressed and special sits world. Definitely do their Case Comp if you go to USC / UCB / UCLA, they hire directly from the finalists of the competition. Super early recruiting process (they usually kick off the LA recruiting process).
• Houlihan CF: Heavy Industrials and Services coverage (A&D franchise is partly in LA). Decent deal flow, although it tends to be a volume shop focused on MM deals. Sweaty. 
• Barclays: FSG, with a number of pick-ups from the CS LA implosion. Known for great culture and better wlb. Completely owns the model for their deals which is important when considering West Coast FSG / LevFin groups. Seniors encourage analysts to leave, so it's a bit of an implicit 2-and-out program, and the group has had historically strong PE placement.
• Lazard: Used to be one of the stronger LA groups but it's imploded over the past couple of years, with PWP poaching 2 of the A&D seniors and basically the entire media team. Group is focused on A&D (and the remaining A&D senior + a new MD promote iirc) are still solid. They recently picked up a C&R MD from WF as well. Solid culture, and historically has had pretty strong PE placement.
• Citi: Industrials group that has historically been split between Metals & Mining (Global HQ of M&M) and Automotive. Strong within their space, although their M&M deal flow tends to be more focused on financings. Small office with only ~2 SAs per cycle. Culture and wlb are pretty chill, but the office is in Downtown LA which sucks (most other groups are in Century City, which if you aren't familiar with LA is the more upscale area of LA close to the wealthier suburbs like Beverly Hills, Brentwood, Palisades, West LA, etc.). The office did recently lose one of their seniors which has shaken up morale.
• Goldman Sachs: Healthcare and C&R. Small office that cross-staffs across SF and LA, with the LA office being more junior-heavy. I believe they only take ~2 SAs each year. 
• JPM: Regional IB (MM group) and FSG. Don't know much else about them.
• Rothschild: Tech office that's also growing out a HC presence. Heard mixed things about the deal flow and culture within the group. Things may be a bit shaky given what's been going on with Rothschild US recently.
• BofA: Historically more Industrials focused (which is where the PWP LA Industrials seniors came from) before pivoting and rebuilding into EGRC West Coast coverage (MM group). Nowadays the office does C&R, REGL, and TMT as well. Traditionally have recruited very late.
• Ducera: RX and M&A (with a caveat below). Cross staffs with other Ducera offices, but culture is known to be better than Ducera NY as Ducera LA has a lot of ex-HL RX who lateraled to escape from the toxic culture at HL. RX deals tend to be creditor-focused, with the office covering a lot of the West Coast sponsors / PC shops. Something to be aware of, the office does a lot of securitization deals / capital raising as well, so just beware that it's not going to be as RX-heavy of an experience that you may expect from Ducera NY. Ducera tends to be more non-target friendly than most other banks. 
• Jefferies: FSG coverage I believe. I don't know much about this office or if it takes any analysts.
• Evercore and PJT: Small offices in LA / Santa Monica, respectively. I don't believe these places hire analysts so I won't cover them in this post.​​​

Timeline: 

I want to preface this section by reminding that the timeline changes every single year, and there really is no way exactly to predict when a firm will go, but this is a rough guideline.

Networking: Kicks off in January-February (traditionally, may even start November/December this year from what I've heard) of your sophomore year and ends when you get an offer. 

Interviews: First banks to go kick off non-diversity interviews around end of March/beginning of April (may move up this year). Average timing is probably mid-late April. Some firms (BofA) tend to go super late like in June. Standard procedure is 1-2 first rounds/phone screens then Super Day with 5ish interviews. 

Tips:

Networking: The goal for networking is maintaining relationships and keeping your name at the forefront of the bankers minds. Don't spam the entire office but try to talk to a good amount of the junior bankers in order to get a first round. If you can manage to have a good call with a Director/MD then you could end up with someone really pulling for you which is great. Have your first calls with banks you don't want to end up with because the first 5-10 calls are probably going to be shit.  LA recruitment is 100% networking, HR is not involved and the online applications are oftentimes not even related to the process. These are really just miscellaneous tips that came to mind first, feel free to ask more specific questions too. 

Technicals: You should know M&I Advanced Guides and BIWS 400 Technicals cold, then start prepping beyond that. Paper LBOs are common for Super Days especially at the Financial Sponsors groups. LA interviews are generally more technical than NY interviews so be prepared. Technicals are really just a box to check, will never be the thing that gets you the job. 

TMAYS: Tell Me About Yourself/Walk Me Through Your Resume will be asked in every interview. Have a 70 second story prepared and rehearsed, then make it sound like its not rehearsed. Practice it and improve it throughout the process. 

Behaviorals: Have a strong why LA story and make it clear you are only recruiting for LA. Know a deal, industry trends/deals if it's a coverage group, and have 5 stories you can use for all "Tell Me About a Time" behavioral questions.

That's all I got. LA Banking is a hidden gem and absolutely worth pursuing. Important to note that it is really difficult to recruit for LA and NY simultaneously, especially because many banks force you to rank by location or only apply for one location. Try to figure out your location preference early on. 

Once again, credit to hogcalling2015 for making the original post and anon for the 2023 update (which I just provided a few updates on).