PJT M&A NY Staffings
Thinking of making the switch to the generalist pool. Can any current Analysts or Associates comment:
Do you think staffings are given in a fair way or is their favoritism involved?
Do staffers do good job of aligning staffings with your industry interests?
Do you feel staffers have a good sense of everyone’s abilities and performance?
Do good projects and live deals get staffed through the staffers or by the deal teams themselves?
Any general thoughts appreciated
Bump
Are you currently at PJT or considering lateraling?
It’s a shitshow from a staffing perspective. Lots of politics and favoritism involved, and your preferences won’t matter in the slightest until at least a year in. Until then, expect to get the shittiest insurance and power & utilities staffings that you can imagine.
Considering lateraling, through my conversations this is something I’m concerned about
Can you expand a bit on why it’s a shitshow? How does the politics and favoritism play out?
Yeah sure - so how it often works at PJT is the “OGs” who interned at the firm, know lots of seniors, etc will get first pick at the solid staffings (by solid staffing I mean high-profile but also good team and meaningful transaction). So all the marquee accounts you see on the PJT website - every single one of those is staffed up by an Analyst who probably interned there. Laterals notoriously get shafted on staffings given their lack of connections, and often it can take a while to build up the clout and relationships required to get decent staffings.
Second important point - PJT M&A is quickly moving towards an industry-focused model. A good chunk of analysts and most associates spend the bulk of their time on 1 or 2 industries. This comes from both senior-designated staffing (ie an MD asks for you - probably 30% of the time), and through the staffers (probably 70% of the time). When you come in as a lateral you won’t have any of that staffer rapport so you’ll just have to grind your way to get interesting work.
Another caveat here is that you might get a staffer-assigned project on an interesting industry / deal, but it’ll be an absolutely horrific team or broader dynamic. Think a hairy 5-segment sell-side with the most abusive seniors at the firm and countless Saturdays of subsequent work.
The comment below is also partially correct - look, no bank is going to give you amazing staffings right out of the gate. I’d just caution you that PJT’s generalist program is uniquely chaotic and can cause you to end up becoming a specialist in Insurance or Power or an industry you don’t care about, simply because nobody else wants to take those staffings.
My advice would be to leverage the fact that PJT is moving towards an EVR / PWP-esque model of industry specialization, pick an industry you like, and request to interview specifically for that group. For instance the RE and Healthcare teams tend to hire specific analysts, and other industries are following suit. Just be cautious of what you’re signing up for when you join the generalist pool.
Good luck!
How is this different from any other bank that still has a generalist pool?Inevitably, staffing is going to be a function of senior bankers asking for certain people (due to capability or relationship) and capacity. That's true anywhere. If no preference is expressed, than the staffing is likely short-term in nature or not complex or high impact enough so it will be primarily based on capacity. In these scenarios, it's more about how various junior bankers are signaling their availability to the staffers and their direct relationship with them. You can call this politics and favoritism, but it's also generally how things work in any corporate environment (PE, corp dev, etc included). I would agree that preferences won't be prioritized for analysts who started 6 months ago, and will likely only become a true focus for top performers that the firm wants to retain. On the shitshow comment, I would agree in the sense that staffers can and do basically keep the best juniors for themselves. This kind of sucks for everyone else, but can you blame them? That's kind of the redeeming quality (in addition to more comp) for the additional work and responsibility they have.Early on in one's tenure (be it Analyst or Associate), there will be less choice. That's just a reality of work life, until you have a track record and develop credibility as a strong performer. Once you are a strong performer (by doing good work on whatever you are given), you will be in the driver's seat. But yes, it takes time to get there and it can be a grind/shitshow to get there.
The difference vs other generalist places is PJT grew the class (and bank overall) dramatically in the past three years but there are still only two co-staffers across the analyst/associate class. This means they’re always overstretched (doling out 50+ staffings per week is not unusual) so it’s a shitshow keeping track of capacity, relationships, preferences, etc. on top of that. Junior/staffer ratio probably higher than any other bank bar none. Paradoxically while PJT is a smaller shop you might end up working with way more people and teams over two years than you would as an analyst at a coverage or product group at a bulge bracket simply because the PJT generalist pool is a. big and b. serves tons of verticals/products/teams. This is why they’re gradually moving towards a non-generalist model but they’re at an awkward “clumsy generalist” model in the meantime.
A general piece of advice to OP as someone who was an analyst there: the generalist model sounds great on paper but you will get shafted if you try to have a truly generalist experience because the teams above you will have no idea what else you’re working on, limited experience working with you and you’ll have less sector knowledge to make your life easier and make you a better analyst. I worked on deals in every vertical except one my first year and closed deals in half of those plus random BD etc and also started taking multiple staffings with the verticals I did want to ultimately work with more. Nightmare to say the least - insane stress, no one knew what else I was tied up on, I was learning different industry modeling ins and outs on the fly, etc. A better approach as I eventually found is: find the teams you like best in two or three verticals and try your best to make your home there (raise your hand for new deals/pitches, learn the lingo/industry/accounting nuances, get to know the team) and you will have a much more manageable and rewarding experience. Also, until it’s fully verticalized, you can work with a team you like but that’s less prestigious (like consumer, power, etc) but not be at a disadvantage in buyside recruiting relative to the analysts in the hotshot groups like healthcare, telecom, REGL due to the generalist umbrella.
Bump
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