Thoughts on William Blair?

Roommate works at WB and would say Saturday’s generally are protected from what I’ve seen (usually at least 3/4 in a month). His group head has gotten involved when MDs expected Saturday work

This is really too complex a conversation to write out. Since I’m aware people are often afraid of messaging or I might not respond when this post gets looked at years in the future, I’m going to try and explain a few things.

1) WB is growing a ton, so they want people to stay. This isn’t a bad thing, it more is an indication that they treat people well. Early on if an employee shows promise, they usually are asked if they have considered a long-term path at the firm etc. I think you have more pressure to stay in the sense that they aren’t trying to throw you out the door after 2 years like many firms do.

2) This doesn’t mean they sabotage your recruiting efforts or anything. In fact, I’d argue quite the opposite. I have a ton of friends that approached MD’s a year in and said, “hey, I think I want to consider buy-side roles” and the MD’s helped place them. I also haven’t seen any animosity toward people leaving that gave notice early. Plenty of people that used to work at the firm come back for happy hours or maintain relationships in the group I’m in.

3) I think undergrads seem to think investment banks are culturally identical across their firm and they aren’t. There can be huge variance even within a group at a bank, let alone between groups. Ultimately, leaving a job is going to come down to how you handle it and the people you work with. No matter where you are, there isn’t a hard and fast rule of “GS is thrilled when everyone leaves” or “WB says you can’t recruit”, it’s based on individual relationships and your relationships at the firm. You could tell one MD and they might say, “you are abandoning us, how dare you etc.” and another one that says, “super happy for you, please come back if you ever need a reference or want your old job back!” It’s based on the people not the firm.

4) A difference in recruiting I did notice is regarding the pressure to recruit. There isn’t huge buyside recruiting pressure at the firm and I think I have seen an equal number of individuals exit to startups/grad school/ off-the-path exits as PE. I knew a huge amount of people that point blank didn’t even attempt recruiting because they wanted to do something else. At other firms I think there is enormous pressure to recruit/ people that don’t are branded failures or it’s office gossip that “x didn’t get a megafund offer” I saw none of that behavior and found recruiting was a bit more under the radar. That said, the people that did recruit were all very successful/ got UMM funds.