During lunch at my office today, a couple analysts and I were discussing whether any IB analyst has ever made it the full 2 years without doing a single pitch. This is obviously highly unlikely, but I work at a sizable MM shop and have gone as long as 6 months without pitching while working on 2-3 live deals. Therefore, it seems feasible to me that in the last 15-20 years, somewhere in U.S., an analyst has had the fortune of repeatedly getting staffed on live deals, and never had to pitch. Obviously we need to limit the applicable ibanks to those with at least 50+ professionals in order to rule out smaller boutiques that might not pitch often, and specify that the analyst be in M&A, but what do you guys think? Has this ever happened? How long is the longest any of you have gone without pitching?
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How would an analyst get placed on a live deal if there wasn't some type of pitch involved in the beginning? Is this to assume that a company will hire an advisor / underwriter without any kind of introduction or discussion materials?
This happens all the time. Banks that have good relationships and don't rely on selling themselves frequently get awarded mandates without an intro or pitch. Also, you can take over deals for another analyst that is either overcapacity or transitioning out. For example, last summer, when a 2nd year was transitioning out, I got staffed on two deals he had just pitched and won. Therefore, I didn't do the pitch, but then spent 6+ months working on the live deals until close. I was too busy to have time for a pitch, and thats how I escaped without pitching for 6 months. It seems feasible to me that this has happened to someone 4x, and therefore they could it make it through without pitching. 2 years is not a long time in the M&A world.
This has not ever happened. Next question.
On the contrary, I did nothing but pitch for my first 8 months. A couple co-manager roles on some shitty follow-ons, but nothing substantial. Fortunately I was able to leave my group, but yea, that wasn't fun.
"2 years is not a long time in the M&A world."
2 years of sleepless nights is a VERY LONG TIME.
I can't argue with that. I was speaking proportionately to the lifecycle of a deal, not an analyst. 6mos per deal / 2 year analyst program = not a long time. 2 year analyst program = very very long time.
Has it ever happened than an analyst just pitched for 2 years without having ever worked on a live deal?
I think its virtually impossible to do ZERO pitching. Someone, along those 2 years, will come buy and ask you to drop a few creds in a pitch, or format a certain slide, or dig some obscure peice of info up for a profile -- all small, but still falls under "pitching".
Although, an analyst I worked with claimed he went a FULL YEAR where he worked almost exclusively on live deals. But he did mention that at times he did have to take care of 1-2 hour tasks every now and then, like the ones above.
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