Jefferies any good?

I'm a sophomore non-diversity at a non-target school and have spoken to a number of people at Jefferies and have heard of a great work environment and culture at the firm.

With Summer 2021 SA applications opening for them in late spring (according to campus recruiting and the bankers I networked with) I am wondering what their strongest divisions are. I heard their LevFin and Healthcare areas place incredibly well for PE and are miles ahead of other MM firms.

How does Jefferies line up against BBs regarding exit ops and overall prestige? I've looked into other posts on this site and most are outdated (think 2015) or don't carry any useful information. I've visited their NYC office and the place is awesome.

29 Comments
 

How does it line up against BB?

Better than places like UBS, better in some groups than places like CS.

 
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Laterals really have nothing to do with the specific strength of a bank. I can show you many examples of people at Jefferies lateraling to "non-prestigous" regional boutiques.

What makes more sense would be a specific group/location comparison, but in general Barclays >= CS >>> Jefferies >>> DB >= UBS.

 

Know a lot of people working there / have recently recruited there (new SA class) but curious about their exits. Never really heard a convo about what their exits are like. Know they’re good for Healthcare but what does that mean in terms of exits, etc. Also what was with their pay controversy about locking people in? That’s not affecting juniors at all is it?

 

I think MintzBalls summarized it best:

"It's partially true. The below is my understanding.

I'm starting FT IB at Jefferies NY this summer and I have a few close friends in one of their top groups (HC/LevFin) from my alma mater. If you are a lateral, you do not have a great contract - there are clawbacks and restrictions on who is eligible for a bonus. There were a few who got a PE gig and were told they would not be receiving a bonus, so some refused outright to continue working.

If you came up through the intern program, you have a comparably great (fair) contract - I know second years who left for PE last year who received and were allowed to retain their bonus. Second years this year also will receive a bonus (rankings were already determined) even if their group knows they are leaving. Some analysts leaving to PE funds (HC and Industrials have great exits from what I hear) were known to be since the 2017 recruiting cycle, and they still will be receiving a bonus. Not subject to a clawback. It's bad business to clawback analyst bonuses as they become clients in the future and Jefferies works with a lot of sponsor-backed companies."

 

Literally everything you just said in this post is total and utter nonsense. Yes, healthcare and energy are their strongest coverage groups, but Levfin is also excellent as is M&A. Tech and industrials also have strong deal flow, and even lesser known groups like consumer have pretty decent deals (2bb+) done recently. In terms of overall culture, the bank is OK. It is definitely not known to be a “culture” bank.

However, Junior level culture is great. Definitely not a bunch of nerds if you are one tho. Very social crowd.

 

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