The good and bad with Wells Fargo
Here's the real deal. The investment bank has grown substantially last few years. They've hired a lot of top MDs from other shops which have brought in big deals. That said, there's growing pains.
The good part are the new MDs. They've brought a positive culture and they've brought the deals. The problem is the middle with the VPs, or also with the old MDs. You have a bunch who were hired before WF was what it is now, so you have people just from a not as good talent pool. I don't care about "prestige" or whatever. The problem is they're just not good at their job, or maybe they were good on some smaller deals but not on the more complex transactions where the workload and time constraints add up. Some of the old Wachovia era MDs also have a "this is the way we've always done it" kind of attitude which isn't helpful
The bank has a lot of potential with all of the lending relationships and the new MDs. I'd say just do your due diligence on the group that you're getting into. Some are unnecessarily sweaty, not because the dealflow is unreasonable to the headcount, but the headcount itself just doesn't know what they're doing some of the time in the middle ranks. You get VPs seem like they got promoted just because they stayed in longer instead of any kind of quality management of weeding people out earlier. Types who just say yes to everything and won't push back on unreasonable requests, and quality of work sometimes is just sloppy. You get a VERY large range of juniors, some who are rockstars and some who really shouldn't be in a role like this and don't understand basic modeling for as much time as they've been in the seat. I think over time that will flush out if WF keeps performing but just do your research and try to flesh things out in your coffee chats. I will say that bonuses were above street esp for top bucket. Top level leadership is serious about growing the IB and have been hiring good MDs accordingly, but the middle is where there are problems.
Wells Fargo's investment banking division has seen significant growth in recent years, driven by the hiring of top MDs from other firms who have brought in substantial deals and a more positive culture. However, there are notable challenges, particularly in the middle ranks and legacy issues:
The Good:
The Bad:
Advice:
In summary, Wells Fargo IB offers strong potential and rewards but requires careful evaluation of the specific team to avoid pitfalls in the middle ranks.
Sources: Let's Talk About the Pros and Cons of our Gigs in RE Finance, WSO 2021 Investment Banking Work-Conditions Survey (Part 2/2), https://www.wallstreetoasis.com/forum/real-estate/lets-talk-about-the-pros-and-cons-of-our-gigs-in-re-finance?customgpt=1
ChatGPT slop (good attempt at editing it tho, lmao)
Bump. Congrats on WF!
Any advice for a rising 7th grader to break in?
Which groups would you say have a positive culture?
FWIW, my friends in sponsors all say good things. The new Credit Suisse people pushed back on work spilling over onto Saturdays since over at CS it was formally protected. Still can happen on something live but it's discouraged and management sounds supportive
The sponsors people are probably pumped with their WLB because WF does basically zero left lead LBOs (unless they got tossed a tranche in a multi-tranche execution out of pity).
Well said
This is largely accurate. There are essentially 3 “waves” of MDs - the legacies who have been around forever, ones who came in 2021 during the mass Covid hiring spree, and ones who came in 2024-2025. The latter group is outstanding from my experience - they do deals and are generally additive to the culture (good at their jobs, efficient, etc). The problem is with the other 2 buckets - and surprisingly the 2021 cohort is worse than the legacies. The legacies are incompetent but are at least pretty straightforward to work with - the 2021 hires have weird chips on their shoulders because they came from large banks and their clock is running out. I don’t know the history of wells but my guess is they took any senior banker with a pulse during that era because everyone quit and it was right when scharf was hired to grow IB.
This phenomenon might be unique to my group though - others have expressed different experiences.
That being said, the bank overall has changed for the better and that is more or less a consensus opinion across all groups. The bank gained share, the pay is pretty good, and efficiency / operations / WLB is better than a lot of their large BB competitors.
I’m not sure how much further the bank will go though - depends on their ability to retain their talent and continue poaching where there are gaps. My take is they can play in the realm of Citi / BofA if they continue growing the right way. Catching GS / JPM will take a very long time, if it ever happens.
Probably fair. For them to really catch JPM/GS they'd need more of a global reach, which WF just doesn't have now
Lev Fin hires have been very strong. That said, that’s also relative to what the group once was. I’ve heard the culture under the newer senior team is solid, and they’re generally pretty personable.
The FSG additions have been good too. Good people overall. From a production standpoint, though, it’s tough to compete with the JPM/MS/BofA/GS platforms, and I don’t really see that changing anytime soon. Most competing FSG groups aren’t nearly as large or overstaffed as WF.
TMT is a mess. Always has been and probably always will be. It’s a huge team, which is surprising given how much pitching they do. From what I’ve heard, the newer senior team is actually more toxic than the previous one. Most juniors burn out.
IND is a good group. Culture seems solid, although you’ll definitely get worked because it’s a grind. On the bright side, there’s a better chance of actually closing deals rather than just pitching compared to some other coverage groups. Also seems to have a strong finance/lacrosse pipeline.
M&A is very much a work-hard, play-hard group. But at least you’re working on actual M&A transactions instead of spending all your time pitching. Exits tend to be upstream to other platforms or PE.
Haven’t crossed paths with REGL but have heard good things on junior camaraderie.
The reality across all the teams is that when talented senior hires have success early, they often get poached by stronger platforms pretty quickly. That’s just the nature of the business.
Can you share some insight about the Healthcare team, if you don’t mind? Thanks.
Beware of Fund Finance Group during placement for analysts/interns…
Why?
Any color on their Mid-Cap group?
Cousin works in that group - good hours and pay (An2 was $115K bonus). Great deal flow - he did an IPO, 3 sell-sides, 2 buy-sides, and various capital market deals in his first 2 years. Supposed to be for mid-cap sized companies but 90% of his work was with $3B+ mkt cap public companies. Plans to get asso promote at end of summer.
Any insight into hours for IND?
Definitely still sweaty, but have heard juniors are tight knit. Long hours but at least better chance of working hard on a live deal compared to counterparts in TMT who will work 90-100 hours for pitches over and over. IND pretty fratty as well, which makes for fun time.
Solid group. Gained market share the past few years, made some good recent MD and mid level hires. Echo the above poster - it’s a sweaty group but you at least have a good shot at doing deals. Team camaraderie is good, particularly at the junior levels.
They can hire Jamie Dimon, David Solomon, Ken Moelis, Bruce Wassertain, Michael Klein, Lloyd Blankfain or Joe Perella it won’t matter. Wells Fargo will never be a BB!
Not with that red logo. Wells totally lacks the aura and elegance of a top bank. They should stick to auto loans and saving accounts.
Congrats on deutsche bro
what are the best groups for junior analysts in terms of culture/wlb and exit opps?
For healthcare, can only speak to biotech/biopharma. The team has had a lot of turnover within the last 1-2 years at the more senior level. New hires are meh. They let good people go to other banks rather than retain.
Any idea how returns are going to be across coverage groups this year?
M&A is sweaty
Can confirm. I’m drenched.
Any more info about the group? M&A is my top placement group next Feb.
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