Why does Nomura get so much shit on WSO? I don't have any personal biases for or against the firm, but it seems to me that their only downfall is the deal flow (which is a problem at a lot of other lower tier banks).
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I recently had a discussion with a friend from an alt's PR firm about this topic. We spoke about the rise of social media influencers in the financial service industry and how they have the ability to sway the next hiring generation toward and away from certain companies. Think of these large finance meme pages and the influence they can exert over the undergrad and even high school aged finance hopefuls. When Finance God throws up a post knocking Nomura and praising Jamie Dimon to his 80k+ followers, people start to second guess the legitimacy of Nomura and are drawn to JP. Sure, Nomura doesn't have incredible deal flow and has had some instances of outspoken and dissatisfied employees, but does it deserve all of the shit it gets? My guess is no. Companies are starting to take note of this, too, and are hiring firms like my friend's to get in front of this new social media paradigm. By the same token, I think influencers are becoming increasingly aware of the responsibility that they have to educate the younger generation.
TL;DR: Social media influencers are beginning to have a large pull in the financial services community and have the ability to sway hiring trends, and I'd take any knocking/praising of firms with a grain of salt.
Those same finance meme pages used to post certain products (JUULs, La Croix, etc) with what I would assume was the same intentions (swaying opinion). Now you have hardos in undergrad sitting in their schools finance labs ripping JUULs, drinking La Croix, and talking about "deal sleds" and they don't even realize how much they're getting made fun of. It's sad but funny.
You got featured on a fin meme page
Every summer associate in my group!
Echoing this, having worked at Nomura it's again all relative. These social media influencers are literally created to mock and parody certain financial stigmas. These pages make fun of non-targets as well; that shouldn't say non-target students from pursuing finance jobs and internships.
Nomura is fine - is it a spectacular shop with top-notch deal flow? No, they're Japanese by trade and they're currently attempting to grow their North American presence. Does that mean you should be swayed against working there? No, culturally it's a great place and additionally any young person looking to dive into investment banking shouldn't be influenced by a social media page designed to make fun of finance things.
Interesting theory but completely wrong. The problem with Nomura is that it has terrible deal flow because it cannot decide whether it actually wants to be in the investment banking business. Over the last 10 years or so, it has tried to build up the business and then completely shut it down numerous times (see 2012 after acquiring Lehman's European and Asian Businesses). They hired a few MDs over the last few years to try to jump start IB, but then announced a $1Bn restructuring and admitted they can't compete. Additionally, it seems that the Japanese HQ and US teams have never found a way to work together.
How embarrassing
I could not have said it better myself.
If anything, that means if you can logically think and navigate all the information given to you, you are at an advantage relative to other kids who might've only bothered with "prestigious" companies. Unfortunately, some kids, albeit how smart they are academically, can be quite delusional when it comes to recruiting process.
Completely agree. Being a young professional adult today means you need to be able to not just source, but also really vet the information you're receiving. I really wish I had known about WSO 5 years ago, can't help but imagine how many pitfalls I'd have avoided during recruitment.
The only great thing about this forum is getting advice from people who are in the industry (hint hint, the star in the profile picture).
Other than that, it's just a cesspool of 18 year olds who think they are going to make $250k at Goldman Sachs their first year out of college. Not to mention all the posts of ugrads asking if they should pursue either IB or HF/PE when they haven't even gotten an internship yet.
Self Awareness is key.
Eventually, the social media generation will grow up to become the senior members of the industry. In 10-15 years time, the same "hardos" that rip on Nomura because they see it on FinMeme pages will be the ones that are VPs and MDs. At what point will we start seeing the tangible effects (people deciding not to do business with places like Nomura because they have a subconscious preconceived notion in their head)?
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ur welcum
I'd work for a Japanese bank in a heart beat if they let me work in Japan. Seems like a cool place to live..
The Japanese literally have a word for "death by overwork" (karōshi). I'll pass.
yea they do and if you haven't visited Japan before their government is 100x more strict and involved with preventing karoshi
One of the most helpful pieces of job-hunting advice I ever received is to choose a boss or team rather than a firm. Even if the wider firm really is a joke, there can still be plenty of resume fodder and money to be made.
I like this advice.
My dad was a journalist and he shared similar wisdom about reading the news - trust the byline and not the publication.
Second this -- might be the single most important piece of career advice. Big companies, even "start-ups" past the 100 employee mark are all the same. It's all people with selfish intentions across a broad spectrum of competencies. There will be shit teams and shit people, everywhere. Look for the diamonds in the rough and you could work for a no-name, completely unprestigious company making a killing and having the time of your life.
Very accurate.
All I have to contribute to this topic is that before my current role I was in a role where I dealt with equity research analysts frequently.
The model Nomura sent me for my firm was poorly done. Not only were the assumptions wrong and different from every other analyst but their math didn’t even flow due to numerous formula/qc errors in the model. And this was the “final” model that supported their earnings projection and ER report.
Needless to say, I was not impressed.
You really can't judge organizations by a particular ER analyst. It depends too much on the individual analyst. For example, in my sector, the GS analyst is really mediocre....don't even know who the MS analyst is...never contributes anything thoughtful....does that mean GS and MS are bad banks?
Yes and no. The type of people a firm hires and let's represent them is indicative of the firm's quality, IMO.
if you dont make at least 100k€ you dont wear sleds, airpods, cufflinks and/or bracers. that's my take
What does owning airpods have to do with anything? They're just another pair of Bluetooth headphones...
Well deal flow is a HUGE FUCKING deal. It basically dictates whether your bank is making money or not.
Your post would make sense if it said that Nomura had great deal flow so why the shit.
On a side note, there are LMM banks out there that you've never heard of with amazing deal flow. Just because you're not BB, doesn't mean your deal flow is bad.
I think you might have taken my point out of context. I didn't say that deal flow isn't a big deal. I also didn't say that non-BBs can't have good deal flow. I was just trying to point out the fact that Nomura specifically seems to be needlessly called out despite other firms having the same deal flow problem.
What firms have bad deal flow but are respected??? Any examples?
I personally from a semi-target with 3.8+ GPA. The recruiting situation here is, if you are non-minority, non-diversity, getting hired by any MM/foreign bank is considered success. (MUFG, Nomura, Mizuho, SMBC, Daiwa, you name it.)
The population is disproportionately represented. There is no way anyone can easily go to BBs. Most of the people are Non-target and Semi-targets, while only target school kids' voice is listened.
Still waiting for these meme pages to advise everyone that Blackstone is still the most prestigious IB offer to get.
LSO till I die baby.
I think Nomura being perceived as less prestigious is probably due to the slightly worse exit opps. From what I hear from friends (working in a major APAC market (HK/SG), the majority of Nomura's deals are outbound Japanese deals (mostly Japanese PEs buying Asian companies) and this kind of limits your exit options since you are pigeonholed into Japanese deals. Still a great bank though they pay on par/slightly above BB
What exactly are the exit opps from a firm like Nomura?
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Just want to add that aside from IBD, Nomura’s US trading group is pretty fucking good. Does 3.5x the revenue of IBD division and has high market share in a number of products.
Nomura macro strategy is actually really good....they have had some great market calls recently
Is it possible to go from Nomura IBD to a MM PE firm?
Nomura --> BB/EB IBD --> MM PE would be more practical
It's not a bad IB, but it's definitely closed. Most of their deals encompass Japanese clients, where knowing Japanese is a sufficient skill. Nomura only recruited Japanese speaking people at my campus when hiring for IBD.
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