Jefferies Houston | Culture, Hours, Exits?
I am about to get started in my AN1 role at Jefferies Houston, in their energy group. Heard a lot of bad things about the group from older threads, but apparently things have gotten better.
So, for those who know anything about it, how’s the culture at Jefferies Houston? Hours are still as bad as they always were? Do people get good PE exits, especially PE exits that aren’t also in Houston Energy?
Thanks
Hours are bad. They absolutely crush it.
New here— is crush it supposed to mean they do well on league tables, or crush it as in they crush the analysts’ souls?
Both
These two normally go hand in hand. First performance and analyst well-being / WLB is typically an inverse relationship.
Said differently: if a firm is having record years, their analysts are getting grinded
Too bad they work 24/7 only to get middle market bonuses. Feel bad for those with lockups as they are trapped.
Nvm
A friend of mine just jumped ship from there after her 2 year stint.
I think a few years back they finally instituted protected Saturdays. Culture is still pretty rough but a lot better than it was pre pandemic. Don’t know about exits on the whole but friend got an energy offer also in Houston.
They do not have protected Saturdays. During high profile deals expect to put in 20 hour days on both Saturdays and Sundays for several weeks on end.
Any distressed/special-situation or non-energy/infra exits?
no
Hours: expect to work 100+ on most weeks
Culture: Super fratty cuz they take a bunch of ppl from SMU
Exits: Good placements but all of it is in infra/energy
Run as fast as you can in the other direction. Bonus was announced today and the entire An2 class just left in the middle of the workday due to frustration. Imagine working inhumane hours, no protected Saturdays and being disrespected with an embarrassing bonus. Toxic associates and VPs who keep analysts up all night twiddling their thumbs and egotistical MDs across the floor. Not even half the class have landed PE roles due to the incredibly long hours and zero support from middle management, and trust me when I say EVERYONE wants to leave.
.
Are all these comments true? Is Jefferies Houston really that bad to work for?
Almost every Aso / VP I know there is just waiting to see if they get paid this year and if not bouncing. Every person that has left is just getting replaced by adding another analyst new hire (who evidently they can just pay low bonuses to) so there has been a serious talent drain and people are just trying to survive the torture the MDs there do with the late night and weekend work. When i was recruiting years ago used to be a top paying shop but now they pay like crap so no reason to go there at all.
If you had to rank all Houston shops, only based on compensation (no exits, no prestige, etc, etc) which would you say is in your top 3-5?
They used to be one of the top paying but since covid have been mid pack so maybe not even top 10.
RUN for the hills. There are some good people at Jefferies, but the overall culture is terrible (seniors see and refer to analysts as "resources") and the hours are the worst in Houston. There are ZERO work-life balance protections (nothing changed or was even addressed even after the BAML situation) and analysts basically have to ask for PTO to do something / go somewhere on a Saturday. Pay used to be great and make up for all the bad shit, but analysts are now getting bottom quartile comp. They will try to sell you on "reps" but really you are just going to be overworked, under-appreciated, and underpaid. Exit ops are decent if you ever have time to study or recruit. I sincerely advise you to look / work elsewhere or leave as soon as you can. There are juniors who have recently quit without having anything lined up… that is how bad it is. You have been warned.
All the analyst promotes are tools and purposely try to make things hard for you. The only good ones are the laterals and they must be fed up and looking to leave from being overworked and under appreciated.
Max out your accidental death and dismemberment insurance, then you all good
They tried to get me to lateral there promising I’d get paid more than anywhere else. Clearly that was a lie. My buddies that work there work 30+ hours more than me and get paid significantly less and that’s at the middle level tool. I heard the bonus pool is just a lie for associates and VPs.
I was on a mandate with Jefferies Houston, where on our kickoff call they kept volunteering to take on more and more grunt work while our MD muted the phone and laughed at them and let them do all of it. Deal went nowhere as my team expected, but Jefferies probably had a big team working through a week straight for minimal extra value to the client.
If a Houston Energy group hires Engineer Analysts, they likely do a bunch of grunt work.
Took over JPM for most toxic bank in Houston. Glad i am no longer at JEF but core issue is all the MD are former analysts so they want you to suffer because they suffered. They forget to mention Jefferies use to pay well when they were analysts so its not comparable. I still keep in touch with a few of them and they are all looking to leave in February.
An1 bonus this year was only ~50k
Didn’t the group close over something like over 10 larger deals? That’s shameful! Guess recruiters know who to hit up for lateral hiring now.
For years, people sugarcoated what went on in this group with the expectations that they were going to be paid well. This past year, the traditional team closed an insane number of deals, some are gigantic in terms of size and fees. Heard the new transition team also did well in their first year in Houston in both M&A and cap raises. All this would make the MDs richer and richer, and not a single dime trickled down to the juniors. To address the main purpose of this thread, Jefferies Houston has horrible culture and hours and as for exits, you will probably do well if you manage to fortunately carve out one second to prep with seniors (literally at your cubicle) breathing down your necks asking where the deck is, but hey, one more happy hour will probs solve everything
Weren’t VPs getting paid like 800k in this group back in 2018-19? Wtf happened
I heard last year they they were lower than every single boutique and were at the same level pay as lower middle market banks like Intrepid. The fact that they had Associates paying their clawback just to go to banks like Mizuho should tell you everything you need to know.
Zero reason to come to this group unless you plan to come for 1-year then go PE. Bad culture, bad pay, high stress, recruiter treats recruiting like a sorority house
Sounds like the Jefferies Houston senior bankers went back and were able to get their analysts more pay than these numbers
Is this true, and any sense of the updated numbers? My understanding is that during early COVID the separate bonus pool (which covered everyone) absolutely bit people in the ass, with bonuses that were ultra low to nonexistent. So they moved analysts and associates to the broader Jefferies pool so that there would be more consistency and avoid the crazy lows in ultra down years. But then you move forward to today and the broader Jefferies bonus pool is kinda meh because they're aggressively hiring MDs with huge guarantees who won't produce for at least another year or two. So here you ended up with analysts who worked top hours on a top producing team receiving normal Jefferies analyst bonuses, which are kinda bad right now.
Confirming pay, culture, and hours are terrible. Pay is on the low-end of comps, if not the lowest. Even base pay is lower than that of the other “elite boutiques”. We just had a wave of analyst leave due to the terrible bonuses and had interns decline offers; we are struggling to recruit and retain. Leadership’s behavior needs to change. Pay for the junior’s need to increase. Hours need to improve. If given the option, it’s advised you go to another bank. It can’t get worse than Jefferies Houston Energy Group. Traditional Energy Group is even worse… if you’re not a white, hetero, conservative male, you’ll get pushed into the Energy Transition Group or the Midstream Group.
Heard on here that an analyst snapped and assaulted/stabbed a VP a few years ago but haven’t been able to verify. Seems to check out based on culture there.
Any color and/or updated views on the energy transition group?
Did u get spd for the FT process?
.
Heard pay improved this year for this group, though not back up to the astronomical levels it was in the past
last years bonus was garbage - one person got 25K.
Et fugiat id dolorum quo. Vero nesciunt dolores quam itaque. Magni placeat necessitatibus necessitatibus aut vel voluptatem dicta.
Unde voluptates culpa velit officiis culpa. Iusto rerum dignissimos ut vitae commodi qui sit. Aliquid vitae corrupti sint earum ipsa autem nam sed. Nam nesciunt temporibus aut.
See All Comments - 100% Free
WSO depends on everyone being able to pitch in when they know something. Unlock with your email and get bonus: 6 financial modeling lessons free ($199 value)
or Unlock with your social account...
Consequuntur aspernatur minus quidem ipsam animi velit est. Quia occaecati voluptate maiores reiciendis et nihil.
Rem ut deleniti earum aperiam provident. Beatae saepe odit ratione. Tenetur autem sint adipisci quae libero.