Places with great culture in London

Preparing for IBD internship applications and am planning to only apply to the banks I feel I’d properly fit in - giving 110% for those apps ofc. Trying to make a list of all the places so I can give them priority/extra research & networking. Don’t want to feel like killing my self this app cycle as I already have an S&T summer but want to see what I can get in IBD hahah.

Was wondering if anyone could give an insight into which firms have the best culture/treat their juniors the best/work hours, WLB and how they achieve this. Comp is largely irrelevant for me.

Would really appreciate any answers, thanks!

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For what it’s worth, I worked at both HL and MC. Though I wouldn’t say the jobs were easy and those were really the only two full-time employers I ever had, I thought overall I was happy working for them and appreciated the wlb and all the other stuff related to the job and felt like the firms were trying their best to be good employers and give employees good experiences overall. I worked out of nyc for both of them but had friends in London. Hopefully they may say the same. Also spent a semester abroad in London at ucl if that helps you at all knowing that 

 
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Work in London and have a good number of friends in IB in London, from what i got i'd first say it's really group dependant for some BBs / large banks, anyway:

RTH: true that generally is a hard culture but from what i got things improved a bit recently

GS: only heard bad things

MS: Not as bad as GS, but still

JPM: depends on the teams but generally you're worked really really hard. People are nicer than MS and GS

Evercore: good culture apparently

Citi: really depends on team, some teams are probably the ones with the best culture among BBs, other are really like GS

Moelis: only feedbacks i had were terrible

PJT: heard good things

Arma: known for being a sweatshop with rude culture from seniors in the past. Things improved recently as they shuffled the MDs / Partners, but i'd not put it under "great culture"

 

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