Moelis Houston PSA
A quick psa for those considering this shop. i caught up with a friend this past weekend who looked completely worn out.
apparently this shop has become incredibly sweaty for analysts associates and vp. regular hours each week are over 100 on a consistent basis. regular all nighters and full weekend work. if not all nighters, regular 4am and 5am nights
on top of this, they are required to report to work at 8.30am everyday and now friday is back to work too, no more work from home. if juniors dont show up by 8.30am they are required to send the group heads, md manager and staffer an email explaining why. seems like the md and staffers dont care one bit about the toxic culture
and guess what is being done about it? you guessed it right - nothing besides empty speech of how much they care for juniors are excited about future and are looking to grow the team
has anyone else heard anything from other houston shops about sweatiness and culture?
All those hours to not get on any of the larger deals is crazy.
Is this all driven by the ex-Citi team (Trauber's crew)? I bet it's time to deliver or shut up for those guys. Been over a year since Trauber has come over to Moelis.
Not OP but working at another shop in Houston.
I’d definitely say Trauber and crew are driving this. Trauber’s whole MO is hardwork over everything, dude simply wouldn’t have the career he’s had without absolutely grinding and putting this over everything else in his life.
That being said, it has been known across all of Houston that he drives a sweatshop, any shop he’s at is extremely sweaty. I personally haven’t had the (dis) pleasure of working with / for him but can imagine that is still the case.
Especially if u pair that with the fact that now he doesn’t have the balance sheet he’s used to so I’m sure he has to fight extra hard to compete with the BB’s who run Houston’s banking scene. Wouldn’t surprise me if he’s just whale hunting and causing a lot of pain on the junior front on stuff that is extremely unlikely to ever materialize. Although, I have seen that they’ve recently announced a few interesting deals on the ET front.
Just my ¢2, hope all the Moelis juniors are taking care of themselves.
Yes, entirely driven by them. Pre-Trauber MC Houston was one of the better culture places in Houston. Didn't really do much unless it a downcycle and RX was popping off, but good mix of comp+culture. Now they're still not really doing much but the culture is terrible.
I’ve heard the junior headcount is way too low for how many seniors they have - Trauber just brought over a bunch of his boys who don’t do any work and just grind the same 20 juniors. Think the office is 80ish people.
Ken will realize this was a bad investment and the office will get gutted to 40 people. Give it till year end 26? Not like the M&A market in O&G is going to get better than 23 and 24
These guys will hop to another bank or more likely just move to a corp dev seat given they’ve reached their limit on switching banks. They went from Citi to Gugg, and now at Moelis. They’ve had multiple chances to prove themselves so can’t imagine they’ll be given another chance by another bank especially in this market.
So about that. Is capital markets work for Houston-covered banking basically done then? I'm talking about in size, not just a few ones and twos like Mach and Infinity
Equity capital markets, yes. DCM is alive and humming - there's a few banks that have pulled back on DCM (citi comes to mind) but void's been filled by others.
8:30a strict start time like that is the most toxic and aids thing you could have for the jr bankers. Recipe for burning out the junior staff and very harmful for their health.
I heard, and this is a weird one, that the seniors are constantly arguing about Isreal/Palestine and aren’t focused on winning mandates
Confirmed!
Yep - I heard about the “Hezbollah” debate, wild
Can imagine this is the case. Isn’t one of the MDs Palestinian / Middle eastern?
I’ll add some color. 8:30??? That’s my lunch break. I work 110 + per week, sleep is for those who want bottom bucket. To thrive in Houston/energy you need to want it more.
Trauber was brought to Moelis for 1 reason — WIN, that’s what they are doing. Driving heavy upstream volume this year.
Need to learn to put emotions aside for the two precious learning years as an analyst.
Is this a satire or real lmao
Perfectly written to make it hard to tell if delusional or funny.
Fine, I’ll say it if nobody else will…
Moelis Houston is ass!!
Have they been lead on any major energy deal yet?
Doing a good job fighting JPM for most toxic sweatshop in Houston
No, the only meaningful things were run out of London or Dubai (and nothing from the big upstream wave which is probably your real question)
Can anyone confirm if there is an A1 here making $1m+ a month outside of Moelis that just "resigned" before hitting the desk?
what the fuck
n/a
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