Is UBS beginning to be a great place to work again?

I have been reading that UBS is growing their IB and plans to maintain this growth in the future. I realize that the firm's main revenue stream comes from WM but is UBS IB currently a great offer to receive? Would you accept this offer?

26 Comments
 

it’s still suffering from its poor rep and lack of balance sheet funding. It isn’t trying to compete with Jp, GS, MS, but it is trying to be more of a recognised advisory only (rather than BS lending) player. I think the strategy is working and they are beginning to grow again, with ambitious plans for US as you say. I see improvements and yes I think it is a great place to have an offer from, but not top level like GS/JP etc.

 

I’d say it’s getting there but still got some way to go. Too quote Florence and the Machine i’d say UBS’ dog days are over. I think it will become more and more competitive with Barclays and CS. Also, it’s more strategic because they don’t lend merely off the back of their relationship from being on a firm’s revolver (which some controversially label as ‘lazy banking’). Because of this there is a lot of time spent pitching.

 
Best Response

Barclays has just gone through restructuring and it not in the best of places whilst UBS has got its stuff done a few years ago. It's slowly but surely growing globally (with a big US push). Pay has also recently been quite strong.

After MS/GS/JP/BAML, i'd go for UBS. Beyond that though... I think the culture which you liked matters most, and if you like the UBS people, it'd be a great place to go.

JP and GS seem to have nice cultures too ... BAML not so much from personal experience.

 

To give some perspective to OP...banking across all BB should be relatively similar, so don’t get too hung up on each (yes, differences in deal flow / culture and exit opps to a degree but don’t expect too much from a two year expereience and recruiting really is all about your intelligence once you are in the room).

Having said that, yes GS/MS would be the top (I’m speaking from an experience level). That’s because a bigger portion of the work you’ll do will be m&a. JPM/BAML will “rank higher”, but do realize they drive with their balance sheet (I.e. get “m&a” credit just being the lead lender but the analyst doesn’t get to do any m&a work). You’ll see more of those fake m&a dealflow at these places. CS and Barclays are different because their are ex DLJ and ex Lehman...you will see a lot of m&a concentration in the Americas because of that reason. UBS never got to the same scale as the other banks (whether organically or through acquisitions like Lehman), so it will always lag behind. Don’t go to DB, they are literally bleeding bankers now (I.e. their TMT team has only 1 MD left in NY and zero in Boston). Hope this gives you more color of why each bank stands where it does on the league tables

 

I think they would be better off as a WM/AM firm. They need to shed their excess baggage, i.e. Banking and Trading group and focus on their core competency, which is WM/AM.

 

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