Incoming Full-Time at UBS Group Rankings
I am an incoming FT at UBS going through the full-time placements. The only product or coverage groups present are Industrials, Sponsors, LevFin, Healthcare, and Tech. Before submitting my final rankings, I am wondering how I should rank if my sole goal is to maximize exits. From what I've seen from past exits I am thinking of sponsors, LevFin, Industrials, Tech, and then lastly Healthcare. However, from the people I have spoken to, it seems like tech has very little flow and less than healthcare whilst Industrials has improved deal flow a lot since the merger. Do you think that will effect the exits in any way, and is there any other order you would recommend for someone solely trying to optimize for exits?
1) LevFin - previously combined with FSG. Very good PC exits with various past UMM/MF exits from what I've seen with past analysts. Not sure about PE stuff, but would still assume MM at the very minimum. Historically considered the strongest UBS group.
2) FSG - goes below LevFin post-split because LevFin does more of the modeling.
Ranking the rest on deal flow, not sure on exits as I am too senior to be particularly worried about it for analysts:
3) Industrials
4) Healthcare
5) Tech
I think tech is the clear last, and if you are super interested in healthcare wouldn't say ranking healthcare above industrials would be particularly weird. If solely optimizing for exits and transactional experience pick Industrials, but if you like Healthcare a lot as an industry you should go healthcare.
Avoid Tech, no flow and bad culture.
Since you said you might pick HC over industrials depending on interest, how big do you think the exit difference might be?
I cannot speak to exits as again I am far too senior to be particularly knowledgeable on exits.
However, UBS is a LevFin-heavy bank and has a really good LevFin franchise generally but especially given where UBS as a whole sits within IBD in the Americas. UBS focuses primarily on sponsor clients, so the sponsor's team is a good place to be in as well. In terms of coverage group, Industrials has the most flow at least post-merger, but the group only separated itself from the rest of the pack in the past year since the merger. I will note that sponsor as one of the top 3 groups for transactional flow is a bit unfair on the other groups as naturally most of the sponsor activity is LevFin and you are essentially triple-counting on all sponsor-transactions as you have a product team (M&A, LevFin, ECM, DCM), Coverage Team/Industry Team, and the Sponsors team meaning that the sponsor's bankers will naturally always have the most transactional flow/experience.
Again, I cannot speak to the extent of the exit differences but my comment mostly stems from the fact that if you are in both GIG and HC you will leave your banking stint with solid transactional experience across product groups. I think from an industry group that's what you should be looking for as a junior, so thus I think you should pick based on interest between those two. I ranked Industrials higher because it's the strongest coverage group by flow at the firm, but fundamentally for an analyst it's not like you will be on every deal your team does, and the goal is to just get transactional experience which both GIG and HC will provide you. So I think from the analyst perspective, both GIG and HC will set you up well!
For what it's worth, HC is a big focus on the bank with a lot of new senior and mid-level hires and continuous hiring. GIG isn't as much of a focus for senior hiring but GIG is presently already a top group in the bank, so think it counters the bank's increased focus on HC.
Ultimately, I think any of the 4 groups mentioned except Tech will be a solid analyst experience with the ability to gain transactional experience across products!
This is correct except Id put sponsors over lev fin, lev fin works people too hard
Can you elaborate on this? How hard are they working the people? Additionally, how do you think these 5 would rank in terms of culture and WLB?
LevFin has much stronger junior experience with more deal and modeling reps than FSG. FSG gets a lot of transactional experience by the nature of the seat, but it does nearly zero modeling on the credit or M&A sides. Again, you will get good credentials from it and, in the short term, might exit equal to LevFin, at least until HHs get a better sense of the split between groups. However, your actual analyst experience in terms of learning and developing skills will be significantly better in LevFin.
It's not like LevFin works it's analysts hard on pitches. It's 80%+ live deals, with most being lead-left processes. LevFin truly does lead that internally across the entire stage, which is a great way for analysts to get exposure to businesses and credits across industries. By the way, FSG also deals mostly with the LevFin product, so I cannot see a way in which FSG is uniquely better.
If you want M&A exposure and work you would go with Industrials or any other coverage group not FSG since coverage groups do more of the industry coverage and modeling. I think for all three of these instances; optimizing for pure exits, optimizing for analyst experience, and optimizing for M&A work, FSG is solid, but I think it's very hard to put FSG first for any of them.
pm me
Are you also an incoming FT? How are you thinking of ranking?
Bump. Any other thoughts, the rankings have to be submitted my Friday, and would love to get some junior perspectives as I assume they'd be more familiar with the junior experience than an ED.
When is the group placement process for interns?
Email HR people for this. Honestly speaking I think intern group placement is pretty low on the priority list for juniors currently as there are full-time placements and then intern recruiting happening right now; would assume slightly later/close to your summer.
Would change my rankings of the group for summer analyst since I assume 3-4 years from now when you are leaving IB, HHs will much better understand the FSG/LevFin split (the ones joining full-time should most likely be fine as it's still only a year or two old). Would also think Industrials will be looked upon more favorably as well if they can have another year like 2024, which seems very possible since none of the rainmakers have left. If solely optimizing for returns, would go HC as well as it's a major focus of the bank and the group is being continuously grown; could very well have full return rates and be much stronger by the time you join FT with corresponding exit adjustment as the group's analysts get more transactional experience and become stronger.
Laudantium eos eligendi dicta. Rerum vitae iure tenetur ut omnis rerum. Labore ad molestiae nobis eveniet ut illum.
Quis hic molestiae magni porro quos autem sed. Distinctio quia id voluptatum ipsum consequatur non voluptates.
Incidunt aut laudantium consequatur vitae sapiente sed. Non officiis enim est vitae commodi voluptatem. Qui et in in id aperiam consequatur et. Ipsa ducimus voluptatem aut et a.
Nihil odio ut veniam autem quae reprehenderit et aperiam. Tenetur aliquam doloremque est id eos minima. Ipsum temporibus aut repudiandae. Qui quam distinctio non mollitia veniam in.
See All Comments - 100% Free
WSO depends on everyone being able to pitch in when they know something. Unlock with your email and get bonus: 6 financial modeling lessons free ($199 value)
or Unlock with your social account...