Hello Monkeys, If you have to give insight and rank the following MM bank (Piper Sandler and HL), which bank would be better in Healthcare? Please give your explanation and feedback!
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Have interacted with both groups in the past.
My most toxic interaction with a banker was a PS HC NY associate. One of the directors in another group/city was fairly drunk at a happy hour and made some odd racial assumptions about me (not white) and it made me feel uncomfortable.
I personally liked the majority of people I spoke to at HL. Some intense seniors in the HC Group but overall, great team and decent vibes overall. Honestly regret not being as prepared as I should have been for their final round interviews. Heard their pay historically is above average for the city they were in. EDIT: Looks like their biggest MD rainmakers in Chicago left to another firm FYI.
HL for a more well rounded HC services experience, and overall much higher dealflow.
Piper Sandler is very, very good in MedTech (especially out of their Minneapolis office), but relatively meh for other verticals.
Wrong
Houlihan is awful, avoid. Best rainmakers have left. One rainmaking MD in Dallas remains and he is the worst boss you’ll ever have.
There is zero job security at Houlihan, juniors are fired constantly. There is no culture of mentorship. You will be worked until you break down and then you will be fired.
Politics are all the rage. The laziest bankers spend all their time kissing ass and get away with doing nothing all day. The hardest workers are abused and burn out. If you spend too much time working and not enough time kissing ass, you will get fired.
del
Based on your profile you were based in Dallas. What are your opinions on being a junior HL HC banker in NY or Chi?
NY is okay. Hours will make your eyes bleed, but associates and analysts like each other. Some associates and analysts are always complaining about being too busy on their other projects, but when you talk to those teams, they say that the bankers have been doing nothing for weeks. Some of them are good. Associates are high strung and some seemed five minutes from crying at any moment. NYC MD is fine. NYC VPs are mostly okay, don’t be surprised if they don’t know your name. They are friendly and intense, you can expect status update requests from them every three hours. All three VPs are doing good business development work. There’s one VP there who I would follow anywhere, she’s inspiring. Another has a reputation as a great team leader, but he can be a bit tough. There is high turnover at this office.
Chicago is better. Best MD in the group is there. Best analyst in the group is there. Okay office when it comes to associates, some are good and some will make you do everything and then take credit for everything that went right and blame you for everything that went wrong. There were 3 VPs when i left, but one just left for another bank. Chicago VPs are nicer than the other offices, but one makes his teams work 7 days a week and the other will bottleneck you because he edits your excel model cell by cell. At least they know your name. There is high turnover here.
I would still avoid HL unless you are fucking desperate. My time in Dallas was the worst period of my life.
NY, Chi, and Dallas are all the same. They staff across offices so if you're working in NY you could be staffed with the Dallas or Chicago teams. I echo everyone else in this thread on avoiding this HL HC at all costs.
Was also at HL. I have no other IB experience to compare it to, but I echo the sentiment mentioned here. I just don’t know if it’s worse than other banks or if it’s just par for the course but politics is definitely an annoying issue
Yeah, agreed.
Considering HL Healthcare. They mention strong retention -- why do you disagree? What is the culture like across offices?
Strong retention? Fucking LOL.
People at Houlihan are dicks and it’s part of the culture. Because everyone is overstaffed but nothing is generating revenue, politics is huge there. Everyone stabs you in the back.
They do not have strong retention. That's the reason they are constantly hiring. They burn through people on a regular basis.
100% can confirm this from personal experience
I second this. We had Houlihan guys, including senior leaders, cross over to our boutique firm, and the firm became institutionalized = ass kissing was a lot more important than intellect and hard work. There was one more senior guy who was superrrr dumb and terrible at his job, was the truest narcissist I'd ever met, worked a fourth the hours than everyone else, but never questioned. Some of the smartest guys just below him were let go and no one knows why.
Interned at Piper Healthcare and had a good experience. Hard to compare with other firms but definitely way better than what you hear about HL here. Expectations are high and the environment is stressful but I imagine that’s just banking. The junior team is nice and the hours don’t seem to be crazy compared to industry standards. Happy to provide more info on pm about my specific group- the HC is split in subsectors. Also growing firm and was impressed by the dealflow.
Would like to be transparent and say I heard bad stories from other sub sectors within HC so definitely group dependent
Can second this. Piper HC is good, but your experience will be different depending on sub sector.
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