Stop sleeping on UBS - it’s pretty good
Look, I get the post-CS pile-on about culture and some teams feeling pressure. But UBS is still a powerhouse — dominant #1 in global wealth management, strong IB revenues from trading and advisory, rock-solid Swiss balance sheet, and a genuinely good global footprint for UHNW clients. Half the world’s billionaires bank at UBS. Pay is competitive, deal flow is solid, exits are solid, and WLB beats most BBs in almost every group.
It’s not Goldman (no one else matches them in the league tables nowadays) but far from a backwater. Plenty of analysts here are clearing more all-in than their JPM counterparts on certain desks right now.
Stop sleeping on it.
Agree and no idea why there’s so many negative posts about it - great legacy rep too
You obviously don’t work there. Otherwise you would be in the same boat
UBS is paradise
Congrats on AI images!
Which UBS analysts are making more than JPM? Is it Opposite Day or something?
Middle and top buckets get paid
Paid in what? Chuck E. Cheese tokens?
Congrats on UBS!
are you the one VP that's in every ubs post claiming the firm is still good? Do you really have this little to do?
It is still good - I would post even more positive things about UBS but don’t have time given how much deal flow
In the IB forum you praise UBS and 2 out of the 4 points you make to support it have to do with wealth management.
Yeah there are synergies between WM and IB
Synergy is WM makes the revenue and IB spends it
The only reason it exits fine is because of legacy BB name and because it's very hard to get a great view on a canidate given the rushed nature of on-cycle. The actual deal experience, culture, and people at UBS is terrible. The only people left at associate level or above is those who are required to for visa reasons, the golden boys who are automatic top-bucket because they are syncopath's or those who cannot find any exits. When UBS retains people, they aren't retaining their best people behaviorally or technically for the most part.
Anecdotally I know a group well at UBS from more than a decade ago. Of said group, the worst analyst, a legitimately horrible, mediocre, unpleasant human being, is the ONLY one who is still there.
Exits are all inertia based as headhunters are not very tuned into the IB leauge tables. As long as they get paid, they will continue as they have been. No real incentives for headhunters to change what banks or groups they recruit from.
I would think UBS analysts make weaker PE assoicates than those from a Jefferies or any other MM with a lot of deal flow bank given deal flow differences. Then again, the job isn't rocket science and you can pick everything you need relatively quickly in PE if you are a reasonably smart and hard-working person.
Congrats on Stockholm Syndrome!
Ubs is a great place to ruin your career. No need to sugar coat the place
I think we should all definitely take the career advice of an Analyst 1
Had a pretty bad experience at UBS. Majority of the people I worked with did not grow up in the US and were a mismatch to US corporate culture(unsurprisingly lead to not winning USA mandates). In general was not a fan of the leadership from MDs, EDs, directors. Everything was always chaotic and people scrambling and pointing fingers. Very few smooth operators with high social EQ(which ironically is what you need to win on the sellside).
As others noted, most people I knew who stayed were in one of the camps:
Just a wierd culture. It's been so much better after lateraling. I was scared to make the jump but so glad I did. There really is a better path.
How hard was it for you lateral after ~9 months in? Would the difficulty be different coming from IND/Consumer/LevFin vs. other relatively weaker groups?
Harder than I expected. Longer you stay here the more your deal sheet looks bad. The lack of true public m&a experience I had hurt me. Hard to position yourself as a senior associate soon to be director when you really just did MM sponsor sellsides despite coming from a bulge bracket.
Sure if it's your only option, take the UBS offer, but you should be hitting the market hard to get out of there by end of year 1.
Agree with this 100%!
UBS has a wide range in MD quality; some MD's are well-connected to the market and others don't even seem to even know the names of the C-Suite at companies they cover. The real problem with UBS is their lack of recent creds for the platform. Hard to justify giving them a sell-side mandate when their last deal is from 3+ years ago even if they have given us good ideas or been helpful regarding a portco.
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