It seems like all you do is work on 25bn+ EV mega-deals while working 55 hours a week in Charlotte paying $700 for a 1-bedroom apartment while clipping above-street bonuses.
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I wouldn’t want to be at any other bank. Great hours, great pay, great culture
There isnt a bank that exists that almost exclusively does deals around $25B EV. Looking through their recent featured deals, they have definitely closed some sizeable ones in the past 12 months. With that said, they arent disclosing the dozens of MM deals that more accurately represents the average deal.
WF is getting glazed so hard these days but their legacy bankers are horrendous. Also, they are one of the shadiest banking institutions of all time. Do people not remember how many WF scandals occurred? Idk, there are some firms I just wouldnt want to work on based on long-term reputation. I would put WF in the same category as Phillip Morris.
A couple of the scandals you may or may not be old enough to remember:
TLDR: WF is a corrupt excuse for a financial institution that hired a few competent MDs but is largely filled with mediocrity. If you have worked on enough deals with them on the buyside you would know this true
Feel free to throw your MS Analysts who have 2 years of FT experience, it wont hurt my feelings.
Edit: Not a single person from the buyside or even another bank that worked with them on a deal has mentioned that they think WF is a well oiled machine that runs a good process. There are plenty of people who currently work there that like it that have strong feelings. That should tell you everything you need to know.
WF is filled with people who couldn’t break into JP/Citi/Boa but think they still work at a BB. Horrendous insecurity and overcompensating culture.
Edit: lots of MS but no one is calling me a liar 😂
You do realize that OP is a BMO analyst, not posted by an "insecure" WF analyst right?
"through"🥀
Del
This is an outdated take on the bank. When WF brought Scharf on in 2019, he began mass layoffs spanning multiple layers of management and replaced them with compentent workers from competing banks. Also, the scandals are confined to the commercial side of the bank, which basically has nothing to do with the CIB. You could also make a bullet-point list of all scandals and settlements that GS, BofA, etc., have been involved in (BofA has paid out ~70B in settlements since 2008, while WF has paid ~20B).
Great points, but please allow me to rebuttal.
I have worked with WF post 2019, on multiple deals, with various MDs, and would avoid avoid avoid. Junior staff underperformed, and MDs gave terrible guidance to their clients. I am not talking about deals in 2020 either, like right after the restructuring. I am talking about deals within the last 3 years.
BoA may be far worse, but does that excuse the absurd amount of fines WF has received?
Also, please dont state that just because its not their IB arm that the two divisions of the bank arent at all connected. Do they or do they not share the same executive team? Who does the buck stop with, the Commercial Banking head, or the CEO?
Del
I don't know about the Charlotte office but Chattanooga is paradise. After work I stop by the municipal golf course to hit 15 below par before heading back to my 1bd ($750 plus change after rent increase and tip). Massive upgrade from the anchorage office
I'm biased since I'm an analyst, but to be as objective as I can, I really do think the current time period is a great time to be here. You get BB-tier comp without the BB-tier WLB. There are outlier groups for sure, but most are decent WLB relative to the rest of the street. Eventually, this will catch up, obviously, as the firm is making the moves it's making, and obviously, more deals = worse WLB.
I will say, though, if you are hard set on exit opps and PE, especially MF/UMM, then maybe it's not paradise, because that's where it lacks IMHO. Also I sound very biased with this and really don't want to sound like I drank the Kool-Aid, but I really do think the culture is great in a unique way. I SA'd at another bank (BB), and it's a night and day difference on this front.
You did what at another bank???
🤣
SA. Don't you know the requirements for banking? There is a reason why so many in Epstein's circle were finance bros ;)
If interested in UMM/MF PE would you say it makes sense to lateral from WF? Is lateraling easy especially from the CLT office?
Depends a lot on the group you are going into. Haven't been here long, but have heard people a year before I was here landed at MMs with ease. Have heard of a very few going to UMM, but I would not bank on this at least now assuming you are an incoming analyst based on your title.
If you want to aim high and snag UMM/MF, lateraling makes sense. I've been looking into this myself just to test the waters and see the market, and it is 1000% doable. Many people go to BB counterparts and have seen many laterals to EBs as well.
In Hudson Yards. Love my team. Good pay and good hours. Work is interesting. Really no complaints.
I heard the work is so interesting that you don't want to go home
The scandals you’re referencing are real, but using them as a blanket assessment of the Corporate & Investment Bank ignores how large universal banks actually operate. Those issues were largely tied to the retail side, while advisory and capital markets function as very different businesses with separate leadership, priorities, and performance dynamics. I worked at another bulge bracket before Wells and chose to leave for better pay and, frankly, better people. No regrets. The day-to-day experience, deal exposure, and culture are what actually define a platform, and on those dimensions Wells’ CIB stands up well against peers. The idea that it’s somehow filled with “mediocrity” just doesn’t match reality, and it’s telling that some of my former coworkers have since tried to move onto my team. Evaluating the business based on actual experience rather than legacy retail headlines gives a much clearer picture. It's no GS, but we have something special. So, yes, I say WF is paradise.
What about the horrendous job they've done on deals I've worked on in the last 3 years?
I can acknowledge they hired some strong senior MDs who know what they're doing, but some of their legacy MDs in one of their larger groups are truly horrible, they do not know up from down. They messed up every single aspect of a deal I worked on, and were less than sub par on others. I have worked with 5 person investment banks who did a 1000x better job than WF. It was truly incredible the client didnt fire them. And again, this was very recently, not say, back in 2019
.
Pretty good, but just short of BMO M&M
congrats on BMO M&M! obviously the best mining group in the world but way overglazed on this forum, best in such a niche industry is like being the best footgolf player in the world
The WF shills on this site are out of control lmao. clearly on the upswing but Jesus Christ yall treat this bank like it's going to be the next GS. Cant wait for them to MS me even though everyone knows im right
No one ever says its gonna be the next GS. relax.
Is it like this in NYC too? Mainly asking about the hours part. If so I may need to make a switch lol, I’m getting cheated 😂
Kind of – the COL is higher, and the working culture is definitely more prominent in the NY groups vs CLT.
Yeah I guess that’s expected. Honestly anything sub 80 is considered good for NYC at the analyst level atleast.
I can't speak to what it is like as a slave there. But as a client of WF's M&A practice, they at least have M&A and utilities practices that do good work
BMO M&M/M&A is indisputably more paradise than Wells Fargo.
Gonna throw my experience out there. Was on a co-lead process with WF a couple yrs ago and their coverage team could not follow client instructions to save their life. I’m talking basic shit too like pie charts adding to 120%+, clear miscalculations and bridge errors, or obvious use of different fonts/formats across multiple pages. My VP would point out all their mistakes and their MD would push back hard claiming he knew better and “pages were structured specifically this way given his 30+ yr experience in the space” until he got yelled at by the client on a call and went all spineless. The cuck bastard would just repeat “yes sir, Mr. Client, we’ll fix right away sir. Not sure where our discrepancy came from but the banks will work to resolve any issues here for the next draft.” Ngl, felt great watching that MD get shit on by some 20 something yr old PE sr aso and the deal partner. This then happened two more times over a week and the process ended up failing…. Gotta love working with WF…
i'm here to collect poo from the wells fargo shills.
everything Deal Team Six said is 100% correct. if anything he's being too nice by acquiescing to the crowd here. standard insecurity that forces a minority of younger and less experienced sycophants to push the wells fargo narrative.
as someone on the buyside and worked with multiple pe shops, wells fargo analysts have never been hired at most legitimate buyside firms and its basically a giant commercial bank with a handful of managing directors being shown around as a paper tiger behind a giant balance sheet.
that's the most accurate portrayal of the bank. it's not good, it's not bad, it's just reality. and yes about 90% of the employees including the wake forest and university of florida alums are all mediocre versus even their barclays, baml, and other lower BB peers.
if you find some gs/ms/jpm associates or VPs to post their linkedin as proof and say that wells fargo is a close peer, i'll eat my words right now.
Thank you. Notice how the only people talking up WF are the Analysts and Associates who work there and the JL12, who likely hired them for a sell side carve out.
Again, its the people on the buyside who work with legitimate bankers all day long who know how bad they are. Ive worked with 5 person banks all the way up to GS and EVR, so I am pretty sure I know what good, mediocre, and horrendous looks like. WF is the ONLY bank I would describe as horrendous. But yet the Analysts and Associates dont want to hear it, so they keep downvoting.
Maybe they will listen to you, as hopefully they have some respect for a VP in PE's opinion.
Where do you work on buy side that you have all this time to post lol. I need to work there
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