Lincoln International - Valuation & Opinions Group (VOG)

To your question on is it investment banking: It is a product group within Lincoln, whose primary business is investment banking (M&A), but, VOG is much closer to Big4 valuations than what you would think of as "investment banking."

From what I have heard, it is a great gig because it pays much better than typical Big4 valuations roles and they are growing like crazy so I imagine job security, ability to move up and exposure to senior-level people are all great. Compared to banking, you also work less hours on average, and more importantly, your hours are much more predictable.

The downsides are 1) you still get crushed at the end of each quarter (they are some of the only people grinding right at year end around Christmas) and 2) I imagine it can be very mind-numbing work performing the same valuations every single quarter...

are hours comparable to IB? Also, I never applied but saw a VOG posting for LI on handshake a few months ago, and noticed the salary was quoted at 30/hr, I believe. Is salary then hourly and not annually?

It's a Valuations group within an investment bank. You are not going to be working on what people would typically describe as investment banking activities (e.g., M&A, equity raises, etc.). I think people on this website have created their own definition of back office vs. front office, but if your definition of back office is administrative and support work (e.g., accounting, compliance, etc.) then no, it is not back office. They work with clients, typically asset managers and private equity, to do quarterly valuations of their investments. They also do various transaction and fairness opinions. For example, a public company makes acquisition and hires them to do a fairness opinion to show the Board they paid a fair price.

Yes