Lazy Bankers?
Last 10 or so GP-led deals sent to me by the EVR PCA team have been a mess. Datarooms are like one folder with 50 files dumped in there. Files aren't named properly. CIMs are all inconsistent and missing key information. Just feels like they're churning out so many deals and aren't actively working with any sponsors to actually fine-tune the materials - really a mess. Curious if anyone else has seen sloppy datarooms over the last 6 months?
I do think this is one consequence of being hybrid or remote - don't get me wrong, I'm a huge fan of WFH optionality, but at the same time new analysts and associates miss out on so many little things by not sitting and watching those above them or spending half the day working on stuff with the deal team in their cube
This is the truth so hard to learn the level of detail that is required on some of the items without seeing someone doing it in person.
I'm with you on the hybrid and can see some argument to made for learning interpersonal skills in the office, but setting up a VDR, is certainly not one of the things that should be used as an argument to return to office.If you're telling me you cannot teach an analyst attention to detail for a VDR via a screenshare and setting a couple of folders up with clean files as an example, your analyst is either thick or your guidance is poor.While I agree that the recent incoming class of analysts is awful, I think senior analysts, associates, and VPs have done an absolute piss awful job trying to teach them virtually and think that ad-hoc in person hover over shoulder sessions are a far superior method because that’s how they were taught.
I have seen the same, but I think it is a bi-product of overworked bankers. I have seen the physical decay of Analysts and Associates (both friends and those sitting across the table from me), and it isnt pretty. These guys are in worst shape than I've ever seen before. I am talking 2+ MPs where the junior staff dont even pretend to pay attention, but are clearly working on other deals during the MP! Can you think back to a time when bankers have ever been that slammed before?
Wait are you saying that bankers today might actually be overworked?
I understand your sarcastic response, but you are completely missing the point. Not everyone knows just how bad it has been these past two years, especially people who have been removed from banking for a while (e.g., OP in this case).
Everyone in finance knows IBD has been overworked since H2 '20. The point is it is much worse than people think it is. Have worked with some very reputable banks, similar to OP, and experienced the same exact issues. The processes were so poorly managed and many folks on my team were pointing their finger at the the Analysts / Associates / VPs. The reality is these deals are being so mismanaged due to unprecedented deal flow which is causing junior staff to not even remotely be able to do their jobs. I was trying to explain to OP that it is way worse than it has ever been, and I legit fear for the health and safety of the junior bankers at some of these firms like EVR.
Everyone on here knows you have to be extremely intelligent and hard working to land a role at EVR, and even more so to move on past An2. Therefore, it is extremely unlikely that the issue is laziness, and that it is due to brutally unfair staffing. At a certain point even the best and brightest start to make mistakes when they are being worked to death. When the Associates / VPs are also being worked to death, mistakes begin to regularly be observable by the buy-side, which is what we have been seeing for a while now.
I mean, MDs could slow down deal flow and start trying to crank out some quality...wishful thinking.
I remember back to the days of seeing top decile managers doing GP-leds. Companies with 50% EBITDA margins, 90% FCF conversion, and 4 year holds with tiered carry.
Why don’t you just hire a GP led focused advisor instead of EVR?
Evercore PCA does many GP-led deals
The top half are still living in the COVID bliss of working from home, Miami, Europe, more time on the golf course, you name it. Rest of us getting churned and burned.
I'm managing clients for MDs who are "unavailable on vacation for the next 2 weeks", trying to execute on 6 things, AND rolling up my sleeves with the juniors who are basically on last gasp. I got shit on yesterday on my first call with a client, 10 minutes notice from MD who was "going to lose cell service and can't be on". My level of give a fuck is now equal to how much my MD gives a fuck, i.e., if client is not important enough for them to spend 10 minutes on the phone, I couldn't care less either. My last dataroom was exactly what you described and didn't have time to index it.
I do hope when a recession hits, like the last one, all the MD chaff gets burnt to the ground. The days of living large on bull markets and cheap credit are over, now you actually have to have ideas and relationships. Too many goddamn grifters who don't carry their weight.
Sorry life is so stressful rabbit. I must say, I always love your posts and feel like you would be a great VP to work for. Your comments always indicate an above average pulse on what junior staff is going through, and how to best accommodate them when possible. Whenever I read your posts I think of my favorite IBD VP who was just super chill, personable, but an absolute grinder. The kind of VP who was as capable of getting in the weeds on an LBO model as he was with developing client relationships. Hope you're hanging in there
Appreciate you man and all the discussion you spark with your content. Thank you for the kind words.
Echoing other posters. Hit the nail on the head on junior sentiment. In my group, it feels like MDs are in "volume" mode where they're willing to bring any POS company, regardless of how hard of a sale it will be, just to bring it through and have junior teams execute it while they can't be bothered to thoughtfully lead processes.It worked to a certain point in COVID where juniors felt like you had ownership in deals, but when you realize MDs are bringing absolute garbage through the door with no regard for client management/timelines, junior team from VP down gets burnt out and results in mediocre work because they're also on 2-4 equally painful staffings. Throw in the fact that junior bonuses are expected to be down while MDs still managed to get credit for 2021 backlog in 2022, morale is at all time low.
deletos
Let's back up a minute here.
Who the hell cares what this clown thinks? "GP-led deals", "last 10" etc. So you work at a pension fund? Let us set the ground rules:
(1) You are not a sponsor. It does not matter what the dataroom looks like - you do not have the brainpower or investment acumen to properly evaluate these deals. Does not matter how consistent the CIM is or how well organized the dataroom is. Take your Kid's Meal and take a seat at the kids table, you are not a real investor
(2) As has been mentioned constantly on this website, banks had to over-hire over the last couple years as a result of the insane levels of deal flow and suffered from high turnover. A lot of good people left the industry permanently. There are now many people sitting in these seats who are grossly incompetent and would never be here in pre-COVID times. There is also a general decline in the pipeline of junior talent that has been trickling in over the last several years. Pay has not kept up with other attractive industries and the job is not viewed as being worth it for talented and ambitious people. Even at top places like Evercore there are a lot of weak people all across the board from analyst to MD who don't belong. So what you are seeing is a by-product of that. But you are a clown - nothing that a banker is doing on these deals, whether that's a CIM or dataroom, should in any way affect a real investor's decision making process
(3) Putting aside above, activity in PCA has continued at a record pace despite the general slowdown across most industry groups in banks. So the juniors are continuing to get crushed, working on more deals than they can handle. Blaming the bankers for circumstances that are a function of the hot market environment and out of their control is idiotic. If you want to direct blame at someone, blame the bank HR and management teams who have done a poor job of planning and managing talent for the last decades
Anyway this is just a post from a pension fund "investor" with too much time on his hands and an axe to grind, probably upset that the Evercore junior bankers are getting paid multiples of his salary.
Would imagine the demand for PCA jobs is also less. Presumably a lot of people going into PCA are those who tried for M&A/strategic advisory but fell short. Historically, there were a lot of great people who weren't able to get coverage or M&A jobs due to the sheer number applying. That lowers the bar even further for non-traditional groups who are competing for the scraps.
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Yeah, Except banks have literally be so busy that they, don't spend any time trying to develop younger talent. Sure, maybe talent is not as good, but I really do think some blame lies on banks as well as analyst. You are now drastically seeing a decrease in talent as most analyst at this point have barely had mentorship or have been remote.
It can probably get better but, I really don't think this is a comp issue, I think it is a people caring issue. Seniors make no effort to develop people, Junior see seniors fucking off and then seniors expect them to "just get better"?
Good post but no, I fortunately do not work at a pension. I am a partner at a secondaries fund with $6bn in AUM. 😂
whats your background? im in PCA at a top firm and want to make the switch to PE secondaries
If this guy had any idea what he was talking about, he would know that hardly any pension funds invest in GP led deals - they normally go through secondary funds or consultants
Lmao so much truth. Who the fuck cares about VDR structure and CIM when the job is to make money? Reminds me why I left IBD
I mean a CIM should be consistent. Numbers should tie across the deck, that’s like having a job 101. I work in a lev fin group so see plenty of other CIMs when we’re doing sponsor finance and it makes everyone’s job harder if EBITDA is different across pages. Now I have to ask you on a diligence call why it’s different, I lose brain cells trying to figure it out, my VP gets butthurt at me, etc
VDR structure is irrelevant though. Honestly would rather the data dump so I don’t have to dig through 15 sub-folders to find shit
How dare you call overworked bankers lazy, when we are risking our health and putting our lives on the line everyday to do your shitty endless non-value add, nitpicking asks?
If only you would focus on what actually matters, then maybe your overworked bankers wouldn't be leaving in droves.
I still speak to retarded people who fucking do not get that the workload has increased exponentially since Covid, you just want to ignore the truth because your little ego cannot accept that someone is working harder than you ever did.
I agree with your general sentiment but saying us bankers are "putting our lives on the line everyday" is one of the cringest statements I've read on this site. It’s not like you’re in the military lmao
I knew there would be someone comparing it to the military, seems like a favourite hobby on this forum.
I am well aware of that, but there are many dangerous jobs on the planet (police/army/navy, security, field doctors, radioactive manufacturing, etc) but the point is finance is not and should not be one of them. I consciously made, like many others, a choice to work in finance to develop my passion and be in a field that I find interesting, but the cost on health is unnecessary and fabricated. We are not exposed to any natural danger in this job, but you cannot deny that the lack of sleep and rest, lack of proper exercise, the firedrills, lack of time away from the desk, and constant stress has an irreversible damage to our health.
In a top group on the street, and yes, confirming that I've now become exponentially more lazy after the abysmal bonuses in our group.
Why would I average 90-100 hours a week again for 25k after tax? Lol
Doing the bare minimum to just not get fired at this point
I can understand legal reqs to store paper copies, but why are you still using paper copies for anything else? Cloud storage is so damn cheap these days. I’m amazed by this, can a banker explain why paper is still being used?
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