It seems staffers get mixed reviews from junior bankers across IBD. With that, what's life like as a staffer?
Are hours/pay/stress better? Worse? Is it an worthwhile position to be in?
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Not sure any staffers really want to be in the role. Basically zero upside / credit with additional work and you become the bearer of bad news. The one upside is that in my view, you likely have the most control over changing group culture. i.e. pushing back to seniors when the junior team is strapped.
Current staffer for Analysts and Associates.
It sucks.
One upside is that you're totally plugged in to performance and you're well aware of everyone's ranking. So the gossip is top shelf.
Everything else is downside. Seniors ping you constantly, you realize you're ruining people's health so they can put together an idea book for Kate Spade that will go in the trash immediately. You can push back but it will be ignored. Juniors fear you, seniors think you're soft. And you never get a day off.
How do you rank juniors? Like what the process looks like
It's literally horse trading at the end of the year. We sit in a conference room and we say "was Billy top bucket? Was Jack top bucket? Was Billy better than Jack?"
There's a lot of small gossip day to day. It's very easy for juniors to get blacklisted and for seniors to say, "never staff me with this person again."
Would a blacklist mean an analyst is screwed? Like beyond a shit bonus would they be like ineligible for promotion or A2A or something down the road?
Along with the line, is there a certain percent or #s per bucket? Say 8 analysts in the group and are they ranked to 2 top quartile, 2 2nd Q, 2 3rd Q, and 2 4th Q?
From what I've seen, no. If we had 8 top bucket analysts, we'd pay 8 top bucket bonuses. My bank does not do forced ranking.
What I will say is that you're usually aware of bucket well before you even get in the room. People differentiate themselves and bucketing is rarely a surprise.
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