Hi all,
I was hoping to see if anyone had some current information regarding BMO in terms of deal flow, culture, hours & compensation, top groups in the US, exit opportunities, etc.
Any info or insights would be helpful and appreciated.
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STAY THE HELL AWAY FROM BMO.
Compensation is not there on bonus, hours are crazy, and culture is a mixed bag.
BMO continues to layoff a lot of people and not promote many who deserve it...while SIMULTANEOUSLY hiring idiots.
2019: irrelevant
2020: irrelevant(?)
2021: irrelevant.
Edit: lol all these MS by angry BMO workers
They laid off a ton of people over the summer. They also cut their SA class in half and pulled my (Chicago) SA offer (know of other friends that got theirs pulled too), so that wasn’t fun. Some of the groups are in pretty good shape tho.
Basically they lost a few heavyweight MDs in their metals and mining group which is like, a ton of their revenue and have had some struggles since then. Still a solid shop tho, just have some issues at the moment it seems. Sure they will recover. That’s just based off of my somewhat limited interactions with them recruiting.
I would stay away from BMO. Over the past couple of years, culture has definitely been an issue, which is likely due to the new management. Compensation is all over the place with very little transparency of what to expect. Deal flow is decent in coverage groups with LevFin being the bread and butter of the firm. If you are interested in M&A, I would steer clear as BMO relies entirely on their balance sheet for relationships. It is a decent brand and you will learn a good amount, but at the moment I don't know a single junior that hasn't verbalized they are looking elsewhere. Morale is VERY bad.
I was in the NYC office. Agreed with everyone's comments above but will also add some color:
Initially told the interns that they have spots for everyone but ended up pulling offers as the summer went on; potential hiring freeze. The tone was different from the start of the summer when they said that they wanted to grow the class to compete with other MM firms.
First and second year analysts were grumbling about cut bonuses and the difficulty in PE recruiting, although they do place well in certain MM funds. Just don't expect MF folks to even bother looking at your resume. I liked BMO overall, but my group was very cliquey and chose favorites very early in the summer because my alumni connections were outside of my group. Wished I had more time to leverage my offer elsewhere but it exploded before other superdays. If BMO is your only offer, fine. Otherwise, I suggest you leverage it elsewhere.
If you're interested in staying sellside long-term, this is a good place. very high A2A conversion rates.
I'm not sure about the validity of BMO pulling offers since I know that just about every NYC intern received one barring a few
As a person who has worked in IB for 10+ years, the state of professionals at BMOCM feels unprecedented for a relatively stable bank.
I've worked at various banks during my tenure and never before could I state that virtually all of my colleagues are in serious recruitment talks with other banks. Issues list includes unrealistic goals, below street comp, unbearable processes, declining culture - you name it.
For all the younger professionals considering BMOCM, please do your research on the people in your groups, along with the culture of the team.
Standing.
Positive in 2021, crazy deal flow and good reps for juniors.