PJT Partners London Shambles
Heard from a friend that PJT partners isn’t the mythical utopia it had previously been described as. Heard they once paid analysts a 70K bonus, but recently that bonus has been reduced significantly(>50%), seniors are fed up with their analysts leaving to the buyside and have stopped vouching for them and the hours have become "unmanageable". Also 9/10 of the students on their spring week program converted into a summer, leaving only 3 spaces for summer analyst this year, apparently this caused a massive feud at senior level, as the culture will know be changing from MSC EU students with 2/3 internships to younger brits with much less technical knowledge. Thanks for the memories PJT, but its time to step down as londons number 1 EB.
Seniors cut bonuses by half and work their juniors at a relatively insane level (would make Moelis blush), juniors consequently leave to buyside. The seniors couldn't anticipate less pay + more work would result in juniors leaving? No one considered PJT as the #1 boutique in London, their London office wasn't even profitable in 2018/2016.
Myself and others in my immediate circle probably would’ve taken PJT over any bank bar GS/MS last year. In terms of desirability PJT was probably the top EB in London. I’m bloody glad I didn’t end up there now though.
Move from Msc EU students to Brits will help with retention and they are probably more well rounded employees who haven’t just focused solely on getting into Banking from the age of 14
It will help with the retention only bc brits won't be good enough to exit to buy-side at all. And how are they more well-rounded than EU students?
Brits won’t be good enough? The only reason Europeans fare slightly better is because they’re all just shy of 30 when buy side recruitment comes around, whilst all us brits are still in our early 20s. Yes a European language is helpful, but if English is your only language it just makes the process slightly harder. Top analysts place in to the buy side regardless of their language capabilities.
I mean it was known that PJT works you hard, they used to say at recruiting events, we'll take your twenties away for way too much money (talking 100K+ first year). Other than long hours, culture remains nice and if I am being honest, some of the European master students there were smart but no where near US BBs, they exit so well to a very niche skillset - to which people at HL do very well to, which is SS PE/HF
It will help with retention because Brits have a geographic tie to London, and aren’t solely seeking to max comp for a five year period and then return home like many EUs
This makes no sense, if anything it would be the opposite. If you do a spring week in undergrad, you are necessarily intent on getting into banking from a very young age, whereas MSc students will have had significantly longer to find their way into banking.
Is this across both M&A and RSSG?
In the London office you are generalist until Associate Level. So I would assume so
Seems that most EBs in London (except Roths/Laz who are not really 'boutiques') have always suffered from problems of high workload and erratic deal flow.
So right now, would you still choose EBs over US BB (GS / MS / JP / BAML / CITI) in London?
To be honest, in London it has never been that you would choose EBs over BB. In Europe in general where there is much less dealflow the companies tend to take a BB to advise them since they are much more known and can provide everything.
was about to respond exactly that.
Only EBs I would consider over non JPM GS MS BBs are Lazard, Rothschild and Evercore (team dependent). But then obviously it depends on the type of deals you want to do. US EBs certainly nowhere near as good in EMEA as NA
Would you take Laz / Roth / Evercore over Citi, BoA or CS?
Can confirm they converted most of their spring cohort and had 3 spots for summer IBD. Was rejected even though I have 2 internships but they've given an offer to some posh kid who went to eton, now durham whos technical skills will be piss poor. But hey, he did pay for 100k college education, so he is qualified
Would not really say that Eton / Durham are top-notch, in the UK real targets are oxbridge and lse, then other unis may arise, but banks do really prefer students from these targets
These elite boutiques are obsessed with culture/fit. They would much prefer a polished Durham student over a super nerdy Asian kid from LSE.
Eton is the single most elite independent school in the country charging £42k per year tuition. It is about as elitist as you can get
eton is a highschool bro
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Losing out to some posh kid who's been coached to success his whole life and had every advantage in the book since birth, sure I am. The firm and many other EBs are terribly biased. Their culture and recruitment practices make it difficult for peope from lower socioeconomic backgrounds to get in.
How do you think he got 3 EB springs and all that jazz. He studies some lite subject too. Thats pure privilege
the real question is, if you have 2 internships why are you doing springs anyway? Don't feel comfortable competing against people your own size? Tbf kid does sound like a posh dickhead but he's the one with the internship not you... lol
Polish is not dependent on uni, its dependent on class and someone who went to Eton, which someone above seemed to confuse with a university, is an independent school charging £42/year. Hence he is some upper class kid whos parents are likely super rich and hence polished
Overall, the standing of US EBs in London has been overhyped forever now. PJT, Moelis and Centerview have virtually no M&A deal flow (at least not justifying 10-15 Analyst class sizes). PWP is totally niche and has to cross-staff because they only have Industrials deals. Evercore might be a Laz/RS in 5-7 years but atm still way below the good BBs.
There is always a summer breakfast by KEA for SAs (KKR, WP, SLP) and I think for 2/3 years running now, they didn't invite a single EB kid (not sure about RS and Laz even). Moral of the story, go to a BB unless you like HC/C&R (RS/Laz).
How do you get contacted to attend that breakfast? Or do you have to apply even if being an intern at a US BB?
They contact you, not the other way around. And in my opinion not worth attending, some people in my class did the SLK process without going, some attended didn't convert... Usually you need to be target school+previous IB/PE internship+current SA to be selected.
Yeah as mentioned, you get contacted.
I was contacted by Kea during my summer analyst position (GS/MS/JPM), almost all the interns in my team got the email as everyone was talking about it. My friends at EBs such as Lazard, PWP, evercore were also contacted. You get emailed about a summer breakfast event with the top funds (BX, KKR, silver lake and more) and if you say you’re interested you have an interview with Kea, they then choose who to send to the breakfast event (unfortunately I wasn’t selected to go through so can’t offer insight into the event itself but they did say it would literally just be a networking breakfast with the different funds, and then the funds will invite certain candidates to interview for their FT positions).
Are also off-cycles invited or only SA?
Yes, off cycles also get invited
Do they invite summer interns from top buyside shops?
The amount of autism on this forum these days is unbelievable. Bunch of special snowflake uni kids whining about someone else's success...
Bye Hitler. Can already tell you were born with the silver spoon up your ass
Your comment speaks for itself. I know some people at PJT in London, and they don't strike me as the kind of people who would spend their time whining on WSO about how someone from Durham got the offer even though they didn't have 2 internships. Get your stuff together mate, instead of acting out like some entitled kid. Have some humility!
How is that even an insult?
Agree, too much of this crap on WSO. Kid gets rejected from a particular firm before taking the time to craft a long reason why they didn't want to work there anyway...
How would you rank HL London M&A in terms of exit ops to MF?
HL M&A is MM at best. No way you get to interview at MFs
Will I receive any interviews?
OMG somebody rejected by PJT completely lost his shit.
Next time you decide to go on a hate rant, check your sources
Your comment fails to realise the basic point: the firm and many other EBs show a huge class based bias in recruitment. That is why people are mad but lots of people here or "who have friends there" dgaf because they're part of the circle
Look up their analysts profiles on LinkedIn and pay attention to early experiences. It is true that a lot of people will be from top schools - they are called top schools for a reason, students there get great foundations for finance careers and are therefore successfully placed across the industry. However, a lot of the people are self-made and went through a tonne of shitty internships and combinations of scholarships to be able to get to these schools in the first place
PJT partners only offers a single spring week of 10 people, so I’m not entirely sure where your getting 15+ from. Heard this year they are considering not converting any spring weekers at all. Also if they converted only 4, why would they only be looking for 3 SAS considering their average intern class is between 10-13.
you can always ask PJT guys in person on Friday early evening in the nearest pub about the "unmanageable hours"
Bunch of autistic nerds arguing about stuff that doesnt matter in the long run. More than half the people will be out of the industry in less than 5 years.
Meanwhile, classic WoW still going strong! Welcome
That's surprising - they usually fast track people that they like when they meet them. Maybe you should have followed up by email with the VP so that he flags you to HR. Also their CV threshhold is incredilby high - ie not just your usual target student, need 1 internship and solid ECs.
WallStreetOasis.com any way to confirm/deny the facts above? You surely are in touch with people in that office no? Because to me it looks like for now its just a student ranting after being rejected - given that I know few people at PJT yet not close enough to ask if rumors are true...
occassionally I do get tips from people over LinkedIn, etc but haven't heard anything directly from someone in this office... so I have no clue.
I can also confirm they definitely did not covert the majority of those on the Spring Week. Original poster is clearly somebody pissed off after a rejection.
Given their competitiveness / small analyst class its easy to gain traction dissing a firm like PJT as most of the people reading WSO will have been rejected by them at some point in the last few years.
Non-story.
Judging someone based on their LinkedIn profile is extremely biased. Whilst, it is true that the majority of people in Oxbridge, Durham etc. come from privileged background and had a chip on the shoulder at some point, doesn't mean that there aren't kids who fought for whatever scholarship was available so they can get in.
You also won't find any of the personal s*** people go through on LinkedIn. Hardship is not solely whether you attended a target or not, or if you converted that spring week into a summer analyst role. To say who has been through hardship and who not based on xyz credentials is tricky at the very least.
Exactly. Who knows if someone had to deal with a bad medical problem and work through it, etc.
Yeah, daddy may have cut their allowance from £500/week to £400. Oh the world is so cruel.
As a rich kid from privilege there is nothing that can happen to you that trumps being poor
Now you're just coming off as an unpleasant person too. Someone may come from privilege and not have to deal with being poor, which I understood your frustrations about, but you can't infer anything at all about personal issues in their life from their Linkedin page. Get a grip dude.
Do you really think that being poor stops you getting into IB in the UK?
First of all, schools and colleges from poor areas get effective increases in their A-level grades for when universities look at your profile, so there is nothing stopping poor people from getting into target universities. The top 2 universities with the most students from private schools are Oxford and Cambridge, and the majority of students there are still from state schools.
The university you're at makes more difference than anything for UK recruiting, far more than your background. While it may be true that EBs favour private school students (realistically most of their intake are Europeans), it is well known that BBs have a strong preference for people coming through social mobility programmes like SEO and RARE.
Stop blaming your rejections on other people or on you being poor.
PJT is defo still seen at #1 London EB in IB target school (Oxbridge/LSE) applicant circles. Just finished the recruiting cycle and most of my friends would have given their first born to work there. Also I've heard from inside that bonus is growing yoy.
Well, that's were the problem originates. "Applicant circles". As if PE HH care about that
I mean considering that PJT will likely hire the best talent from the best schools, MF/HH will obv care and recruit
Where's London?
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