Macquarie Software & Services 2021

I am an analyst at the firm, so can weigh in. I will answer the following questions:

1. Culture/Hours - What they are like
   1. Overall I honestly love the culture. Super friendly and non-arrogant. MDs and VPs make edits to materials all the time vs just sending it down, and generally they look after Juniors well. Also big pro is I feel like I can ask for certain types of transactions and they will try their best to get them to me. Really to me the main selling point.
   2. Hours have been up and down depending on what location. A lot of cross staffing across office so depends on the timing. I would say street average maybe slightly more given the leaner deal team structure. However, I can say if hours are higher they take note and will shift stuff around for you.
2. What happened to TMT / what is the structural reasons for S&S
   1. When COVID hit many banks did similar things. I will not go into detail given I respect my bank's privacy but I feel I can say a large part was they wanted to focus more on areas of expertise in Software and Services (ed-tech, etc), hence the name change. We still do media and telecom and id argue quite well, just more shows the focus. We have not lost any types of products or coverage, just more of a focus change IMO
3. Exits / A2A
   1. A lot of juniors stay on A2A, and the ones who don't from what I see mostly go to corp dev. The reason being is it is a feedback loop in terms of MACCAP's culture is very chill, therefor we recruit chill people / non-hardos who may realize later on banking is not for them. Again, I will not go into details but the ones who have left for corp dev have all said that if they wanted to do IB still they would 100% stay at Macquarie, just that they realize they want a chiller lifestyle. However, I have seen a few exits into buyside so its less of a prevention more of a personal choice. A large amount of career bankers or people starting out as such.
4. Staffing / Hours
   1. Said a bit above, but its very cross-team. E.g. say the Chicago office comes up with an ed-tech deal and need more manpower, they will source whatever analyst is most free or wants to work on it. Same with other groups like DCM / ECM.
   2. In terms of hours / gym / protected I cant really say much, but they will reimburse your gym membership and while like any platform there are formal process for PTO I have honestly felt super respected for time off. Whether that is saying hey can I get 30 minutes to myself to eat to actual time off, they are very lenient. Its kinda amazing Ive never seen anyone denied because I think everyone genuinely knows when to request and when not to.

Overall, I honestly really like the firm. Looking back now at what people say banking is vs. what the experience has been like at Macquarie I would have hated my life at a BB / EB. I know I sound like I am paid by the company but I am truly not and I see it as a growing and unique platform. Like any bank, there are cons too but I see the overall experience well worth it.

And HR, if you are watching, stay cool :)