No Closed Deals for 1st Year Analyst Class
Currently in coverage group at a BB and realized none of the 1st year analysts in my group have closed a deal (M&A or Capital Markets) since starting last summer. Is this common this year with COVID?
We are in a hard-hit industry but typically have had reasonably good deal flow. Current 2nd years had almost all closed something by this point last year. Most of my class hasn’t signed for an exit, so not sure if this is a death sentence for PE recruiting as well.
Wooooooof
What BB tier and industry? Might not be good if you're in a hard hit industry that won't come back for a while as PE firms aren't likely to recruit for those areas unless it's distressed.
That said there's always opportunities - reach out to some head hunters and if you're in a BB I'm sure you can get something.
Top half BB, middle tier coverage group, traditionally M&A focused. Had a number of M&A processes active pre-COVID but all are now dead.
Taking a hunch here and guessing Oil and Gas?
Top tier - you'll land something. I think people can understand that covid is a pretty unique situation. I'd still try and recruit and wouldnt worry about it.
Is your BB a balance sheet bank? That's surprising. I'm at a low tier BB and have a half dozen closed cap markets deals / one sponsor sell side. Honestly if your group's culture is good I'd wait it out
No, traditionally more of a M&A focus. With on-cycle in the coming months, I’m considering staying as a 3rd year to give more deal runway and/or switch coverage teams. Feel like it will be difficult to go on-cycle without deal experience of substance.
wouldn't recommend such staying an extra year just to get deals. Try recruiting now and seeing if you can get anywhere. Why waste a year of your life?
Closing deals is always a hit or miss type thing. If you've been on unlucky deals or keep losing the pitches every time, you might never end up closing a deal your whole two years (I think others in the forums have said this too).
Know a few friends who've been on 4-5 deals for more than a year and still don't have a closed deal. Either way, at least for interviews, you can mention the deals you have been on (closed or not) and the impact of your work on them. It's not as good as closing a deal but it does mean a lot more than not having been on any deal at all.
Wouldn't expect many deals to be closing left and right for the next couple months at least.
Just poked a friend on FB who told me in his BB top tier group that out of the first years, only one of them has closed a deal. All of the other first years were on a deal but they all died because of COVID.
Poor guy has been at the firm for almost a year and hasn't even been put on a deal at all. He keeps getting put on pitches but never ends up winning any of them...
Damn if he was a top bucket analyst at FT Partners like you he would be working on 5 live deals and would do 0 pitch work. FT Partners >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> GS TMT/MS M&A >>> your friends top tier group in a BB.
Your first sentence is completely true objectively. The second statement should be completely flipped as in flip all of the >
I disagree. With you there working on 5 deals FT Partners >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> GS TMT/MS M&A.
I get that Richard has been a bit annoying in the past, but is it really necessary to be a dick when he's offering genuine advice?
This industry considers reputation to be everything. Imagine if someone is the worst analyst you've ever met and one day they're trying to say something insightful. Sure you might listen but you won't take it as seriously as someone else saying it.
That doesn't mean you have to stoop to their level and make fun of them if they're trying to say something insightful. You should be trying to encourage them to be insightful, not putting them down. This is why you're just a prospect and not an actual analyst at an IB.
why is it that the college kids who haven't even landed an offer yet are the biggest hardos on this forum? Tough talk for a kiddo who isn't qualified to get pickup my coffee for me. Take a lap.
you're a prospect who doesn't even have the balls to post under your own username. Shut the fuck up
Ha for a split second I thought you meant all the analysts died, not the deals.
i actually thought that too lmfao
"All of the other first years were on a deal but they all died because of COVID."
R.I.P.
did you have any (many) “potential” deals that u did a ton of work and due diligence on that ultimately “died” or were pulled or lost to another competitor? often times those deals the work you did is better to discuss than a live left lead that was straightforward. I’d recommend adding those Project names to resume and Saying it died or was pulled or whatever - what’s the downside?
yeah blame the virus not the fact that you’re a fucking pussy with a lameass group who couldn’t close the deal
Are you working on any live processes?
For the purposes of PE recruiting, when you are talking about deal experience, you do not necessarily need to speak about a deal that is closed, for example, on your CV you can have "Lead left acquisition financing of processed foods manufacturer (ongoing)" with what you are currently doing on the transaction listed below. The deal does not need to have closed for the PE firm to ask you to speak to it at your interview and quiz you on if you know the thesis and company inside out as well as the more technical financials aspects of the transaction.
When you are recruiting for PE, firms care less about how many medals you have on your chest, but rather that you actually fully understand everything related to the transaction that you worked on. To that end, often a $200 EV sell-side process or acquisition financing is more valuable experience as you get more hands on work on the transaction than say if you were on the sale of BioPharma from GE to Danaher.
https://www.gobuyside.com/
hopefully will be closing my first deal this year very soon, fingers crossed :)
Why does it even matter? For an analyst they are just doing monkey work. There is no difference between closing a deal and working on endless deals that don’t get across the line.
That is a fair question. Having a closed deal on your resume speaks to the fact that you saw a deal from start to finish (from initial drafting of the CIM, to party outreach, to diligence and legal doc negotiation and ultimately to close). This is important because it allows the analyst to begin thinking about deals holistically, as opposed to just being exposed to multiple deals that died early in the process or never made it through diligence. As an associate in PE, it's important to understand the whole process and how everything works.
It also creates a strong basis of conversation in interviews. Oh, so you worked on X deal that was sold to Y sponsor? Talk me through that deal, why did the sponsor think it was a good transaction and would you invest in the deal if you could? You can't answer that question as an analyst if you haven't closed a deal. And deal talk is a majority of all PE interviews, so if you don't have the experience, you won't get the interviews.
I would recommend trying to lateral. Start over as an Ana 1 at another bank if you have to. Deal experience is 90% of PE recruiting. If you don't have at least one M&A deal on your resume, you're going to have a very hard time landing at a good PE shop.
I was lucky and had two M&A deals on my resume when I went through recruiting, but half of my analyst class didn't have anything closed and those individuals had a very hard time recruiting (some are still with the bank because they couldn't leave).
Lateraling in this environment? Interesting.
Have heard plenty of RX shops are hiring. Just because the environment is shit doesn't mean you have an excuse to not have deal experience. PE recruiting will still require it, so if you want to position yourself as best as possible you should be willing to lateral for the sake of your resume.
It's so dumb that many times, especially in the first year, it's almost luck if you get put on good M&A deals as well as if the deal closes...you agree?
Have a friend in a TMT group at a MM who has closed one txn in M&A. The other first years were on deals but they all are in a coma because of COVID so they can't won't be recruiting in PE unless they recover.
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