Thoughts on BMO Harris?
Recently got an offer for their Seattle office. What are the pros and cons of BMO Harris and this office specifically? Anything I should be aware of with regard to offer conversion, exit opps, pay, etc.?
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Are you referring to corporate banking? In IB we never call it harris, we call it bmo capital markets.
If you are talking IB:
Idk about the seattle office at all but know they are pretty set on expanding our west coast presence. My experience has been very positive so far, chill group culture, relatively decent wlb for banking, protected friday nights and saturdays (unless absolutely necessary; can probably count on a hand the times this was broken in my year here).
Pay is probably on the low end of middle of the street.. was told to expect ~150k for middle bucket all in (100k base).
Exits are not as good, which is the price you always pay for better wlb. Still can lateral to bb or eb relatively easily if you are dead set on Top PE.
But mm / lmmpe and growth equity are viable.
I had the exact opposite experience. I can count on one hand the amount of Friday nights I didn’t work past 11pm. I worked Thanksgiving and Christmas as well. You just need to do everything in your power to not get staffed with the 1-2 a-holes in each group.
I was told middle bucket last year for an 1 was a 65k bonus but have heard ranges from 45-85k and was heavily determined by politics. 100k base +10k stub + 65k bonus would come out to 175 if they keep bonuses the same.
That said, everyone who wanted to lateral was able to. If you can coast it’s a nice place to be.
Yeah my sign on was 7.5k but you are probably closer on all in comp. Surprised to hear that you are getting hit that hard but definitely think that is an outlier outside of M&A, LF, FSG or the MM teams. Are you in one of those? I'm in coverage and its been pretty chill
Do you know anything about BMO SF office?
Heard culture & WLB is good
I heard culture is not the greatest (not Seattle specifically but firm-wide). Even in Canada, their culture is known to be a little iffy (one of the worst cultures out of the Big 5 Canadian banks). But this is a very broad observation, each region/group will have different cultures.
I disagree with this wholeheartedly. Canada culture is a whole different game and is pretty bad but US culture is very strong. Mostly chill groups and very few type 1 a-holes in NY and CHI.
From your perspective, what groups are the sweatiest and which ones have better wlb?
I dont think there are any super sweaty groups to my knowledge. I would say our more sweaty groups are the product groups, primarily LF and M&A (MM M&A gets hit the hardest imo because they do a lot in house in terms of coverage work). In terms of coverage groups, FSG gets worked pretty hard because of the amount of financings we do for sponsors. Also think industrials is a little bit rough but again wouldnt call any of these groups "sweaty" like the 100+ hour weeks you'll see at some banks. Tech and FCR are both relatively chill from what I have heard.
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