JPM LevFin?

I previously worked at JPM London LevFin so I can answer your questions.

LevFin is split into two teams:

• LevFin Origination
  • Description: Team names can be a little misleading as this is the IBD team handling the entire deal itself from start to finish including origination, marketing, financial modelling, due diligence, roadshow, and execution of the deals. So despite the name, the LevFin Origination team does both the origination and execution of the deal itself.
  • Analyst hours: 8am to midnight with a little bit of weekend work (Fridays finish by 7pm).
  • Culture: generally awful but decent if you're part of the "popular crew" these were the ones who perform well and knew how to handle office politics to be the MD favourites, they treat you well and party hard. But if you wasn't part of this circle you'll feel left out. Very European culture, if you're English/American you will not fit in and you'll likely be the bottom bucket for bonuses. To survive in this group you need to be in the majority which is French or Italian, or after this German or Spanish. Each ethnicity group stick to themselves for team drinks or events etc. If you're an Intern you will not be converted unless you speak one of these languages. In fact, if you're an English or American about to do an internship here immediately ask to transfer, it will be a waste of your time as you will not convert. For the French/Italian/German/Spanish interns they will love you and you'll stand a very high chance to convert.
• LevFin Capital Markets/Execution
  • Description: The team that sits on the Bloomberg terminals doing the underwriting, structuring and execution of the products themselves.
  • Analyst hours: 7am to 8pm with no weekend work (Fridays finish by 7pm)
  • Culture: pretty decent culture, majority are guys that mainly stick to themselves and just get the work done. You get treated well as long as you're decent and do the work.

Note: that the London office operates differently to the US so team responsibilities might be different there.