Serious Topic: What is UBS's reputation now for recruiting (given the threads here lately)

Bank is catching strays left and right here.  Easily the most talked about bank.

UBS in the last monday morning meeting went on in detail how the firm has "fixed" its recruiting efforts for on campus, and will not be afraid to go after the best of the best (at top target schools).   Basically the message was we are a top platform and we expect and demand top talent (and to not be afraid to position us that way).

Yet...all a student has to due is pull up WSO and see the daily thread trashing the bank.  Is this resonating?  Do people care?  Is there so much competition that even landing a spot at UBS is fought over at top schools?

What makes a student pick UBS over other banks in 2025?

13 Comments
 

I assume they believe they can win any mandate of any size even if they usually aren't too competative in leading blockbuster transactions in the US, (or at least not that I have seen / extremly rare) under the new leadership team.

I can imagine the monday meetings are all management probably just complementing each other and their leaders at internal pep rallies (picture Trump in front of his cabinet and the cabinet complementing him excessivly and awkardly), while not looking too much at recent league tables and market share declines.

 

What do you mean "fixed" recruiting efforts? Eliminating DEI? Chaging Schools they recruit at? Recruiting earlier? 

You can't just keep repeating "we are a top platform" and expect it magically happen

 

Dude let's be real here; there are tons of kids at top targets that don't get offers. I think for everyone except a very few, people end up with 0 or 1 offer. Most candidates will take a UBS offer any day. The supply for IB interest is so much higher than demand, and it's not like UBS is a no-name boutique or anything. Also, people generally trust the folks they network with or talk to more than WSO except for the most hardo of candidates, and those are not the type of people that end up at UBS anyways. 

 

Yes... until those conversations lead to people confirming the vast vast majority of things said about UBS on here are true and accurate

 

By "fixed" I think they might be implying that many of the existing people there from CS and UBS are bad, so they have to recruit differently to not end up with people who have historically gone to CS and UBS

 

Maybe they go with an IVY only strategy. They might prefer lower tier candidates passed by top firms GS/MS/JPM at an Ivy over top candidates at non Ivies.

 

What makes a student pick UBS over other banks in 2025?

No other offer from a higher league table platform, its really that simple

 

Most people take UBS over places like RBC despite them being higher on the league tables because UBS's top groups have better exits. Think people will take any BB/EB over UBS though and UBS is probably comparable to roughly Jefferies or so in exits. UBS top groups exit better than the Jefferies top groups or at least equal but UBS average group exits worse than the Jefferies average one.

 

Historically I agree with you, but in 2025 I vehemently disagree. As the bank saw wallet share declines across geographies, that increases the odds significantly that there will be a complete rebuild in a year or two. You don’t want to be somewhere with perpetual rebuilds because eventually they will do what HSBC did and stop investing in their IB leading to eventually offering less advisory products in less markets.

 

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