What are the sweatiest teams in London in terms of hours, culture and pressure? Some that come to mind are the following:
- HL RX
- MS M&C
- PJT RSSG
For you guys, how would you rank the top 5 sweatiest groups in London? Which group is the absolute London sweatshop? Also, grateful if you can comment if comp is materially higher in these groups vs the rest of the street.
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All of these groups are absolute sweatshops (that come with the best exits, although GS and MS are definitely top 2). Not much between any of them, all are just try and survive teams. Probably hours wise it'd go: GS, MS then HL/PJT similar. Salary wise, PJT is top of the street in London with GS and MS the same and HL bottom (although this is rumoured to match PJT in August). Other teams to include would be Rothschild Energy and some jefferies teams although can't remember which specific ones.
I saw a thread about salary bumps for HL here in WSO. Is that your source or do you have a different one?
I have a few friends at HL and that's what the rumours are within the firm
At MS I've heard fig and gpug teams are pretty tough too
Have heard from a lot of people that MS in general is a brutal sweatshop with the worst culture on the street. Wouldn't touch that place based on the horror stories I've heard from people who have been there.
Care to share some stories?
Is PJT that sweaty? Saw some other posts saying PJT has good WLB/Culture etc and looks a bit contracdictory - not sure if it is RSSG only?
Moelis has ridiculous hours in M&A and also doesn’t get much done in the UK. Probably the worst shop to be at with those hours based on exposure.
Can only speak on HL RX, I've been told by people close to the team that it's amongst the sweatiest in London. Levels of sweat so high that working there simply not sustainable. Churn quite high although exit opps are elite (as are all on the list).
Can confirm GS TMT. Currently an analyst in another team at GS but did a rotation in the TMT team when I was an intern and have good relationships with a lot of people in the team.
It's a brutal sweatshop and a week below 90 hours is pretty much unheard of. A night that ends before 4am is a blessing. You will also be working +90% of Sundays (and I'm not talking about coming in at 12 and leaving at 4pm, but coming in at 10-11 and leaving at 2am). You'll get plenty of Saturday exceptions and if your vacation is not cancelled you will have to work for the majority of it.
It doesn't get much better as you get more senior. I know senior associates who are still in the office until past 2-3am on a daily basis. It's also a pretty painful team to be in because you have quite a few MDs who want to turn every page 15 times. Every possible analysis under the sun needs to be run yesterday and no stone should be left unturned in the search for mandates.
How did you arrive at 90+ hours? If you’re in the office from 9am to 4am, 5 days a week, that’s 19 hours × 5 = 95 hours already. On top of that, if you’re consistently working Sundays from ~11am to 2am (≈15 hours), that puts you closer to ~110 hours per week, no?
Roth Energy & Power team has had 3 people on a mental health leave over the last 2 years so that should tell you a thing or two…
It tells me that they only hire softies
It is one of the top teams at R&Co but if you’re good, you’re working non-stop
Close friend works at MS and he says the M&C and GPUG team there are insane hours Monday to Sunday. ED's and VP's work til 2-3am consistently so you can imagine the damage the analysts and assoc go through
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