Jefferies in 2021 and Beyond
Hey all! Incoming SA at JEF here. The firm seems to be on an absolute tear from looking at its earnings and league tables, but would also like to year all of your opinions on the firm's outlook and any headwinds or tailwinds that JEF faces in the near term.
Jefferies has been absolutely killing it but (from an outsider's perspective) the firm seems to be changing its strategy. I summered last year at a BB and am returning there for FT and I definitely feel like I've seen Jefferies competing against us more and bidding on larger deals. From my perspective it almost seems like Jefferies is moving towards "leveling up" from a MM and into traditional BB territory.
This has largely been the strategy over the last three years, but is increasingly so this year. Not to say Jefferies still doesn't pump out MM deals which they do, but they definitely are looking to compete more with the BBs. The Sumitomo alliance and getting access to their balance sheet is most definitely proof of that along with the poaching of group heads and MDs from various BBs like CS' FIG global head among others.
I'd like to pursue HC banking at some point so logically, I hold JEF in a higher view than most.
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What did Ben say?
I have a few close friends who work there and it’s a fine place to start your career. But everyone I’ve met whose worked there, my friends included, are kind of intense/arrogant/love the grind. If you’re laidback and not a bro, the culture could be a little abrasive. But it’s only two years as an analyst and then you can move on if it gets too much.
Not OP here responding but would love to hear your take on Jefferies IB (specifically an M&A-focused coverage group) vs MS Capital Markets (Generalist platform so ECM/DCM/LevFin). You seem to emphasize name brand a lot more than function than others on this forum and while MS is MS I'm definitely much more interested in M&A so I'd love to get your take.
Hey, Take anything you read here with a grain of salt as everyone's opinions are different and the cream of the crop don't waste time surfing wso :)That being said, yea my slant when picking resumes is to give credit to top schools and larger BB, but that's just my personal preference. I think it's a little bit of self selection bias since I went to a couple of ivies and work at a BB. It's really hard to differentiate people just based on a one page resume, so I find it helpful to choose candidates that way. That being said, tons of colleagues went to crappy schools, so I'm aware school doesn't necessarily mean everything.To your specific question, JEF IB vs MS cap markets. I certainly think MS has a much stronger brand name - I spent some time there actually earlier in my career and the people there are decent and sharp. I'm much familiar with the lev fin function vs ECM but they seemed to do lots of IPOs when I was there.However, M&A and cap markets are so different that I think your choice really depends on what you want to do. Are you very interested in M&A and PE? Do you want to do corp dev type work in the future? Than I think you have to take JEF in that case because you might find cap markets to "soft" and not technical for you.
Are there any firms that have a culture of laidback and a bro? Idc about MF PE, just looking at either MM PE or GE
From my experience BBs/EBs all tend to have a more intense culture, and a lot of MMs seem to have a more relaxed culture.
Stop the Jeffries nonsense and stay in the MM pls
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