Truist / STRH

The above poster is spot on. I was at STRH/Truist and left because of the merger. I got a call one day that I was getting moved to a coverage group I had 0 interest in being in during the multiple stages of restructuring (I got no say in what group I got to be in, just a 2 minute call that I have been moved and I start today in the other group). I left for a much better MM shop and have been much happier. 2.5 years and 0 closed sell sides at Truist and 0.5 years at my new shop and will close my first sell side in a month or so (along with multiple other mandates we’ve won and I’m working on). As said above, there are some groups where you definitely get worked just as hard as any other bank and even then the deal experience could be lacking.

Management really hasn’t been able to get out of their own way in terms of integrating the Corporate & Investment Bank. It’s resulted in a revolving door of bankers. Unfortunately it’s not a surprise to me that Truist is focusing their decisions around costs. They were always cheap when I was there. STRH was obsessed with their “efficiency ratio” which basically meant they didn’t invest in anything that would make analysts lives easier or more comfortable. Print shop took much longer to be established than other banks, no graphics team, the IT/technology sucked, as said above no meal stipend during wfh (some analysts expensed meals in the beginning COVID and a member of the senior management for CIB sent a long email to the analysts saying how we shouldn’t be expensing meals and that’s only a luxury while you are at the office and that we are at home working so we can cook dinner...what a joker), they will find any reason to skimp on bonuses (also heard bonuses were light this year for associates on up, anecdotally my first year as an analyst I was told I was operating as a 4 in my review but would be given a 3 in my reviews and that was my bucket for my bonus, when I asked my group head and more senior analysts about it they said they just don’t give first years 4 typically because they haven’t had enough time at the bank to prove themselves so no matter if you work harder and do a better job than other first years you will probably all get the same bonus...so frustrating - I did get a 4 my second year but honestly just very annoying that they really needed to skimp on a few grand). The senior management is a group of ex BofA guys and there seems to be a clear in group and out group for MDs. There’s some bankers in the out group that are just given a hard time and are not liked by the senior management. This creates a huge amount of internal politics that funnels down to the analysts as bankers are basically spending as much time trying to position themselves internally to senior management as they are working with clients which means tons of internal requests for MDs that want information on call stats, call notes, messaging of internal memos for management, constant updated info on clients, etc. And don’t get me started on “client planning”...what a joke and waste of time.

But to answer your question, yes healthcare and TMT are probably the two best right now, but will still be a big mix of capital markets work so wouldn’t expect to be constantly working on and closing on sellsides like you would at other MM shops. What sellside deals there are will be gobbled up by the more senior analysts.