Industrials Group Across the Street

BofA took a step back over the past couple years primarily due to very low pay (this was not just unique to industrials). Lost a few good MDs and a ton of solid mid levels. ~50% of MDs there haven’t been on a M&A transaction in years.

Culture there is pretty rough… from what I heard over the past 2ish years alone, 20+ people in the group lateraled to other banks ranging across the entire spectrum (other BBs, EBs, MM, etc).  

Kind of a weird top-heavy dynamic there… tons of MDs and analysts/junior associates, but very few good mid levels in-between that can execute & know how to think. 

Deal flow is decent but has fallen lately… they have a very good transpo banker and a few solid building products & services guys that bring in large M&A deals consistently. The rest are meh and tend to go after very small deals for whatever reason. Lots of gaps in coverage - they don’t have anyone reputable that covers industrial tech, packaging, E&C, or A&D right now.

Culture is solid at the junior levels but has gotten worse in conjunction with a lot of the competent mid-levels leaving. The senior bankers in general are OK to work with but aren’t the types that care about culture & overall group wellbeing (going out for drinks, getting involved with recruiting, fighting for people during reviews, etc).

My two cents- If your goal is getting deal reps earlier in your career, BofA is a  good option. Good brand, solid deal flow, and decent exit opps. However, if your goal is making money, you’re better off at almost any other shop. Many of my peers who left BofA are making 1.5x to double what they did before.