Houlihan Lokey - Four HC Bankers in Chicago Quit in One Day
Does anybody know what the hell is happening at Houlihan Lokey? I heard from a friend of mine who's interning there that four bankers just quit today. I've seen the topics, is the place really that much of a sweatshop?
I keep getting inbounds from recruiters who are begging me to come in for a first round. I'm not sure if the reason they're always hiring is because they're growing, or because people are quitting so often.
For what it's worth, I also heard that their staffer in New York just quit.
Bump
I'm there. crazy sweatshop and weird culture but exits are good so I don't really care. And yes, we need people. We're bringing in a couple washu kids for first rounder soon, thats all I now.
For SA 2025?
Oh yeah... HL is a volume shop. They'll pitch and work on any deal. One of my buddies lasted like 8 months there before calling it quits. One anecdote: buddy was released by the VP at like 10pm after some deliverable was sent. The second my friend got home (all of 20 mins later), VP calls him and starts turning comments demanding it get done by midnight. So i'm not even a little surprised. They probably quit after their bonus landed and cleared of clawbacks. (believe they have like a June bonus payment cycle)
August bonus cycle for analysts, kinda weird timing tbh
fair enough, probably should've caveat that this was like a decade ago but it seems like nothing has really changed. lolz... Vaguely recall the rationale was that first years would have a full yr of work to gauge bonus. but probably is to not have pay stub bonus in Dec/Jan. pure conjecture on the last one.
They pay out 80% of bonus in mid-May, so if the quits were associates and above, they've probably just been recruiting since the awful bonuses
I did hear bonuses were embarrassing. Really shocked that a firm that sells itself as doing as well as HL claims pays out as poorly as they do.
Was invited for a first round but turned it down. Emailed them letting them know I wouldn’t be moving forward and got a call 20 mins later asking to expand on why I didn’t want to continue and if I was “scared off” by the sales pitch they initially gave me when letting me know I was being considered.
Their 2nd year analysts' last day is tomorrow. Most offices don't go in on Friday so most of the departing analysts' last day is today since they need to physically hand in computers and keycards.
Interacted with the HL Chicago office through an interview process for summer associates. Seemed like an absolute sweatshop but great place for deal volume. Friendly juniors and mostly friendly seniors. Bombed an interview with one of the MDs there that's now at a different firm. Had a decent chance to get an offer (or at least that's how it seemed). Despite that, the HC team in Chicago gave me a weird culture vibe that's hard to explain. I doubt I would have lasted more than 1.5-2 years as a post MBA associate there if I got the internship / return offer.
Interesting.
I used to work there. It's a complete sweatshop with this kind of turnover every year. ~50% of analysts don't do the full 2 years and end up laterally somewhere else, and probably 70-80% of the associates leave within 12-18 months. The majority of people who leave end up going to regional banks, a small minority to BB, and a lot to no-name PE shops.
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