Is Jefferies Really That Bad?
I was at a bar last weekend and overheard a couple guys talking. One of them said, "I wouldn't join Jefferies if Rich Handler personally paid for my entire mortgage in one lump sum." Is Jefferies really that bad? I have a GC with a few friends from college who all work in finance and one of my friends who works at a HF now constantly refers to Jef as, "the bank that hires Associates who can't do basic math and crushes good analysts before they can get promoted".
Yes. Source: me, the good analyst that got crushed and decided it wasn't worth it to deal with illiterate associates who don’t do anything. JEF has a culture problem.
Did you lateral?
Yes, they’re that bad.
Jeffries? More like Assries
I believe the proper name is “assfries”
Yes - I got a roommate who works there and he absolutely hates his life
What group
Recruiter for them, met 8+ people over 8 interviews (for an internship) then got told after all those rounds that i didn’t have enough experience
Did AC with them. The worst candidate in the room in the group exercise got an offer (strong diversity btw) and barely anyone else at AC did.
What is AC
I'm finding that hard to believe because the EU + LDN pool in my AN class was white and 90% male. But then again this was pre-pandemic.
I don't believe they'd give a shit about even employment laws, let alone DE&I, so... very very surprised
They’re a strong diversity or you are?
Ahh, the memories of this.
Not enough experience for an internship lol? I’ve never heard that before
Did you reach final round? How long it took you to get rejected? Went through similar situations a year ago and I never even received rejection email lmao
Yes, it really is that bad. Bad associates hide behind good analysts and it creates a lot of friction on deal teams. Those same bad associates will take credit when things go well and point fingers when they don’t
YES. Exactly this. The amount of times these incompetent people throw juniors under the bus is insane.
Lets see - repeated claims of bad culture but CEO chooses to spend his time on instagram, commenting on posts. Totally sounds like they're dedicated to fixing it.
Finished at 4am one time and loaded up instagram to see rich handler bouncing on a trampoline on his story. I nearly jumped out the window
🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣
Just came back to say this is still a legendary comment
Lol 🤣🤣
Jefferies loves to hire a bunch of, let’s just say “special program” folks who have a lower bar to join the firm.
Can confirm
This is the source of most of the problems. Rich and Brian are ultra woke and go all-in on it. End result is a dearth of good people who end up getting completely crushed because others aren’t trusted with anything real. All banks do it but most do it for show, Jefferies is a true believer. And they don’t have the reputation of other true believers like Evercore where you can factor in non-ability related things and still get top talent.
Is this US only or what? Entire EU + LDN pool in my AN class (pre pandemic) was white. 10% female.
I’m sorry bro but I completely do not pay attention or care that banking exists outside the US. (Respectfully)
It has become so easy for folks like yourself to brush off stupidity, arrogance, ignorance, lack of knowledge or experience onto “I am just not a special program”.
I was interning with one dude who was good technically and all, but he gossiped so freaking much and his personality was just completely backwards which irritated everyone - and he didn’t get an offer. Until today though the guy blames it onto not being of non-European origin and onto not being a woman. What a self deception
Yeah its an easy cope for their lack of personality lol, diversity hires are still able to do the job at the end of the day its rlly not rocket science to begin with.
Yes. Can also echo the comments above. Some of these MBA hires and lateral associates are awful.
..
Idk i’m an intern right now and it seems fine but i guess i wouldn’t really know
which groups....def not hc intern
HC actually.. they are definitely working awful hours but i thought that’s standard for ib
Jefferies has some groups with solid culture: PCA, Levfin, PU&I, Consumer all come to mind. Industrials and Metals & Mining seem to be decent as well. That said, the best groups tend to be medium to small and even then, it’s still banking so firedrills and long nights are still going to happen.
Not accurate metals and mining is toxic. They actively make it hard to recruit out and have a horrible, sweaty culture. Small group, so there is nowhere to hide.
Those are the guys who left DB a few years ago right?
Do they even have mandates? I didn't even know jefferies had a M&M practice
Thanks for sharing. I’ve had superficial access to the group and they seemed decent, but I’ll defer to what I assume is your personal experience. Won’t update my comment for the sake of the record, may the monkey shit fly.
PU&I left in 2017 or smth to Cantor. Global group got poached (and the JEF went on to sue them). Hari is a good guy, from what I heard, and doesn't tolerate assholes at all (I've heard of him firing MDs he considered toxic, maybe not at JEF but at least at Cantor)
What is the research division like at jefferies?
bump - interested as well
Completely arm of IB, some of their lead analysts knew nothing about the stocks they covered and GLOATED when they talked about some hedge fund clients had liquidity issues during 2022.
i think they somewhat believe in their research business vs other banks who are downsizing it so may be better than most
I worked there for 2 years as an analyst. I don’t think it was that bad, most people have a generally positive experience. I think if you talk to people who worked there before Ben lorello retired (pre 2021) you get a very different picture. Very tough culture from top down. Think that has changed for the better a little bit over past couple years. RE handler, most employees are not a fan of his antics.
it’s true that some of the coverage groups have some seriously bone headed MBA associates. Product groups don’t hire MBAs which helps, and in general are much stronger at JUNIOR level only as a result. Coverage MDs run the bank.
Overall culture is still slightly on the toxic scale but very group dependent. A lot of people stayed on as associates this year actually. I was happy to have started my career there, but also am happy to be out of there. it’s not as bad as people say it is on this site.
What type of seat are you in now? Interested to see what exits there were like for your class
UMM/MF buyout
I connected with a guy from Jefferies and spoke to him, which was really kind of him. He and I had the exact same background, Infact I had a little better work exp than him. A role opened up in Jefferies and I requested a referral. The guy tells me, I can't refer you until I know you and can totally vouch for you as it reflects upon me. For an Analyst role!? Not sure how common that is, but I found that extremely lame and strange. If that's true, then what kind of firm holds onto things like - you referred a candidate who didn't get through ? And then if he is just lame as suspected, I wondered don't they have interviews at Jefferies to assess people?! Like, it's just a referral!
Was a really weird one for me. I just said okay and let it go.
I mean he was just upfront about it but that’s essentially how most of the people think about it. I am not going to refer someone if I don’t know then and/or don’t think they’ll do well. Don’t think that has anything to do with JefCo as such.
Lol what do you want for a referral, man? More than looking at CV, have a conversation and understand about their experience and gauge their interest?
Lemme guess - some background checks, your own interview session to see if they can do the job?
When and where have you seen or heard some referral for a beginners role that came back to bite? Like the recruitment team emailing back and saying yo, the guy didn’t do well in the 4th round and it’s your fault?
Stop overthinking this man - it’s just a referral for an entry level role. No one’s putting their job, reputation, money or life at stake here. Chill out.
I just don't get why some people think they are entitled a referral. Like, why tf should i refer you if I haven't even seen you in person once in my life?
Where did you read “entitled”? And think about it before you overanalyse anything man - a referral doesn’t change ANYTHING about an application except a tag that it was referral. You still go through the same interview process and have the exact same selection process as a non referral.
And you’re forgetting that we spoke at length and also saw each other’s profiles. What more do you want, set up a date with them?
All I said was it was weird and a bit lame. Chill out man.
I’m not getting involved in this conversation but referrals at jefferies really only matter if you’re an MD or SVP. That’s how non targets get hired there. Analyst referrals and even associate don’t really do much, and if you are an analyst referring a bunch of people you have like no shot of pushing anyone into a process as it dilutes the value of your referral. If a junior refers you, it’s likely they are only referring you and maybe one other person. Keep that in mind, you’re not entitled to a referral for having a conversation with someone. Maybe you sucked on the phone? I’ve had so many terrible calls with students it’s unbelievable. Juniors get 5 emails a week from kids, what makes you so special?
Wow.. way to NOT get involved in the conversation - by passing one-sided comments aimed at me !? Not gonna continue this man - think what you like. Can’t keep feeding such minds.
Had a similar experience while doing SA recruiting. Dude sounded intense and seemed like he had an ego. We graduated from the same high school and grew up around each other. There were others I networked with from JEF that also graduated from my high school and were more helpful and down to earth. I think the culture attracts those types of people. I know one kid who is a SA there now who explicitly said to me “I realized that anyone who got anywhere in life was kinda an asshole, Steve Jobs, Zuck, Bezos.” Safe to say I quickly stopped recruiting there…
Used to work at jef and speaking from experience- it’s such a toxic political firm that referrals absolutely reflect badly on people if the person they referred doesn’t do a good job. One VP in my group specifically told a fellow analyst to NOT refer people because he referred some kid from his school for a summer analyst position and they were the only one who didn’t get an offer. He said it was embarrassing and reflected badly on him. And yes junior referrals don’t really matter (I.e. really don’t affect if someone gets an interview or not), but it definitely is a firm that would look down on you if your referral turned out to not be that great
To be fair... this happens in every type of business. If you vouch for someone (otherwise known as a referral) and they suck, it looks bad on you.
Had a friend interview at Jefferies. The interviewing analyst got annoyed when my friend emailed him his phone number to call for the interview, and instead made my friend call him, which would be fine if the was nice about it, but apparently he was a total dick
Can someone shed light on their energy group?
Heard the junior culture/analysts are all chill.
My info is several years outdated, but I heard complaints that if you're not in the Houston team, they feel that they're subsidizing your bonus and treat you accordingly
Considering quitting with nothing lined up because it’s that bad. Big culture issue across the firm with tons of incompetent MBA associates.
Which groups are genuinely bad? I’m an intern and not really getting a sense of bad culture anywhere yet
From what i know of its mostly the really large groups and "top" groups
I am not kidding when I say an MBA associate in my group asked me how to convert basis points to %. Guy is a fucking idiot along with another 60% of the Associates I interact with. Unclear how this bank is afloat when 2nd year ASO's cant understand the revenue build without being talked to like a 2nd grader. Its ridiculous.
Can confirm this experience. This one MBA associate somehow managed to not know how to format a table on PPT, repeat the same year twice on a one page timeline, not know how to use the CapIQ plugin, and can't even make one page of a WGL properly. Time and time again the analysts have to pick up all his slack. In a supposedly strong group as well
Know about this one MBA associate that couldn’t make a simple team page and never pulled his weight on any coverage work
Jefferies fundamentally has an identity problem. It has scaled somewhat rapidly over the past few years (poaching MDs, good deal flow, punching above its weight), and has not addressed its growing pains. A lot of these MDs came from well-developed practices, with great structure underneath them which made it possible to execute at the highest level. With Jefferies being run as a complete shitshow, it just means juniors are crunched even more severely trying to manage the workload.
Secondly, there is a bigger cultural problem. Through this rapid development, there are Associates and Analysts who have risen through the ranks who, for lack of a better description, were not EB / BB / PE material. They worked at Jefferies in 2016-17 or earlier when it was a shitty bank. Their lack of expertise becomes more and more apparent by the day. You layer on the scatter-brain executive leadership and all the internal politics that go on, and you have a recipe for catastrophe.
The only thing I don't understand is, and if you are a VP+ at Jefferies this is especially for you, why do you crush your juniors and yourself so hard? It isn't like you're Goldman or MS, and there is a very big likelihood that you will never be. Are the companies you sell that bad that you have to incessantly work around the clock to move the probability needle of transaction close just so slightly forward? If so, why do you keep doing it? My time at Jefferies was filled with pitch decks being perfected to the tee. Footnotes on 100+ page CIPs conformed and backends for the most niche charts argued over for hours. Ultimately, the data you use for the companies you sell has no credibility and all this wasted effort is moronic. Maybe all that's needed on your part is some soul searching and acceptance: no matter how many ways you chop up the deal tables, you are a B-tier organization.
And there is no cure for the associates you hire. They are destined to fail since they are usually the last ones without an offer.
This is literally the office I worked at (*cough* one of the Asia finance hubs). Anyone left is basically a loser without options (also because it's known that a few of them tried to leave a few times - not bound by an unreasonable notice period - and they could not)
Can confirm Jefferies top tier sweatshop status. Best friend works there and hasn't had a date with sleep in a weeks
what team?
"top" groups
Yes, I was one of those analysts. I stuck it out only because I naively signed a contract with a 6 month notice period and no recruiter could wait that long.
The secce actually said “everyone who leaves this place becomes extremely successful”. The senior analyst (then asso) was an insecure idiot nicknamed spineless, the asso (then VP) did nothing except find excuses not to be in the office or to work at all (he was OOO for 3 days because he had to fly 2 hrs, take one meeting and fly 2 hrs back).
Every single analyst in that regional office who quit, quit due to health reasons and promptly rejoined a PE firm shortly after.
when I quit, I had already flagged that I had developed a pretty serious illness. Idiots still blew up my work and personal phones on my medical leave because they could not… run comps.
tried to set HR on me and I happily sent over all the documented shit they’d tried. Didn’t bother me again for the rest of the 6 months.
also, after I got back from analyst training, I could model as well as the senior analyst (by then asso), which is really saying something about the quality of people who stay on there
They love to tout their "entrepreneurial approach". Which actually means eat what you kill approach that creates an environment of sharp elbowed a-holes who will trip you down the stairs for $1
EXACTLY this
The bigger issue I've heard with "Eat what you kill" banks is it means every single MD is on their own to produce in order to make money. There's no semblance of team prioritization.
Thus you can be working two of the largest and most complex, high-probability deals going on at the bank at once and shitty MDs who haven't closed anything in two years are still going to be blowing you up all day and all night to try and pressure you into prioritizing their far fetched pitches on small-value deals.
Is this exclusive to NY groups? How are the CLT groups in regards to culture?
..
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