How common are layoffs?

I have never been laid off so far, have done full IB training within FLDP, changed banks, changed teams and I am still going strong. Also know others who were never laid off, even after 12+ years.

especially after the GFC, its much less common. Only really during major black swan events does it happen, and I would argue its fairly predictable who gets laid-off. Usually newer teams/experimental groups for a firm gets cut as they dont have dealflow, and expensive upper management like group heads or higher-paid MDs whose group the firm thinks they can consolidate with another. So really any good TMT/FIG/other top groups at a decent firm should never have major layoffs

Intern in IB - Ind

Is it possible to go through a career in finance without being laid off? Someone told me that is unusual to go through a career in finance and not be laid off a few times

Over a 40 year career in hard charging finance? Yeah it’s not unusual. Think Jamie Dimon was laid off at one point and he’s obviously not a scrub.

some of it market dynamics and politics (wrong place, wrong time) or it could be coverage group issues. Common for energy (and further back - coal/mining) coverage bankers to get laid off. 
 

im sure a ton of tech guys got fired in 2001 when that slowed down. 

It depends if you work or ever worked at BMO.

It's pretty simple, if no deals are happening in your sector or your firm can't land deals there will be cuts. Generally M&A seems to be fairly stable. In good times, there's a ton of growth focused M&A. In bad times, there's more defensive M&A, restructuring situations. Companies that wouldn't think of doing things will be forced to take action. If you're in coverage and your firm does ECM, DCM, and M&A, there should be revenue opportunities through the cycle, unless there's a major dislocation like the GFC. 

One view from someone who spent some time outside of IBD before (thank god) switching: S&T, especially in the boutique and independent research space and non-BBs is getting crushed by Mifi II and flows from active to passive. They got bailed out this year by covid volatility, but make no mistake, it's secular decline for the foreseeable future. Seen many layoffs across research, sales, and trading, and severely scaled back hiring at places that are doing well. Just take a look around, S&T divisions just had their best year in a decade thanks to covid, and yet how many S&T job postings do you see online vs IBD?