Why doesn’t Wells Fargo promote analysts after 2 years like all the other banks across the street? Nobody ever mentions this but seems like a pretty big deal to me when deciding where to recruit. Anybody have any reason why they have no 2 yr A2As in the entire bank?
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Miz/GHL and Truist has the same program.
Yes but those aren’t BBs, all the BBs outside of WF promote in 2
Wells isn’t BB either tbf
6th in the league tables for 2025
you gotta give it to the non targets at Wells at this point they're lowkey ripping
Lots of banks are 3 years, it’s slowly going back to 3 year cycles as well it seems.
It’s chill bro 1 year is nothing over the span of a career
That one year is about $100K difference in pay at age 24-25…. That’s fairly significant especially if you’re forced to do a third analyst year while peers at other banks are promoted early
WF pays their analyst 3s just as well if not better than ASO1’s at other banks
Im incoming FT at wells fargo and my offer letter says its a 2 year program and basically worded in a way that either u get canned or promoted after 2 years
lol well you’re in for a rude awakening, it’s a 2 year contract and then they give you a 3rd year analyst offer mid way through 2nd year. Nobody gets an associate promo after 2 years here. Source: I work here
i have a question for u if u dont mind, how does the assoc promo work since im going to the same firm? is there a set benchmark?
Wells Fargo promotes at 2.5 years to associate. Just do some checks on LinkedIn. Truist and Citizens are like the only two banks that have strict three year programs. Super incentivizing for junior bankers!
Exact reason most people at Truist do ~2.5 years and lateral to ASO positions. Definitely a point of contention at the bank. Know many peers who already want to lateral as an AN2 to a diff bank and get the promo after doing another year. Have to do the “full” three years but gain the prestige boost.
Source: work there
Yeah I worked at citizens. It’s because citizens and truist comp to each other and stuck in their ways lol.
Citizens does M&A in-house within their coverage groups, and on top of that they run very lean deal teams, so those third-year analysts were having to swing up and perform the role of a 2nd year associate but never received the pay bump or title that would come with an early promo. Absolutely crushed a lot of the analysts
that were in my class / ultra-unincentivized so they all left to PE. If you run lean deal teams, you need to pay them in which the roles they perform. I remember when I was there, we advised a company on its sale to a large PE firm. It was me (a second year analyst at the time), another second year analyst, an MD, and a first year. It was an experience to say the least
Del
Yes well CVP pays their third year analysts like second year associates at MM banks so not a very apples to apples comparison
Thanks Andrew A!
It’s definitely a full three year program. July to July for 3 years then you become a stub associate till January. Then you’re a normal AS1.
False - Wells M&A group has promoted Analysts to Associates right after the two year mark….
Source: roommate works there and was promo’d at end of his second year
Ya lol, I tried getting the A2A here and got cut. Had to move downstream, people talk like Wells is some chiller easy bank but good luck on your prospect if you stay on for the 3 year analyst program and can't get promo and no good exits lined up.
Same experience here. At least my group is pretty cut throat and toxic
Which group ?
Were you in a top group?
Are you saying that WF has lower A2A rates than other BBs etc? If so, is that due to over hiring analyst classes? Thought that the firm is growing in IB right now and with the natural attrition with IB, thought a2a rates would be pretty solid
TLDR: A2A is no longer the "default" if you don't exit for PE / Corp Dev / whatever and you actually have to be a strong analyst to be considered for it.
This is very normal nowadays and certainly not unique to WF / BB's / Major IB's. A2A promotions were initially introduced as a retention metric to incentivize top performers to stay when 1.) the IB / M&A market was strong & very active (i.e. 2021) and 2.) when there was a significant delta between IB analyst & PE / IB associate pay (mainly salaries before the widespread bumps).
Fast forward to where we stand now where the M&A market is rebounding but no where near the all time high's, coupled with the AI developments and lackluster job market. Today is it very normal for analyst's to not get the A2A promotion by default with most getting promoted somewhere around 2.5 to 3 years on the desk (i.e. starting in July 2022 and getting promoted to Associate in Jan 2025 or July 2025). A2A now is considered "early promotion" and reserved for only the top analysts across all classes / groups.
Aside from that small portion of the class (call it 25%), everyone else falls in the 2.5-3yrs timeline and the bottom of the class basically gets pushed out following 3 years if not promoted (these are all those people who go down market after 3 years as an analyst with no promotion then have their LinkedIn title as "Investment Banking @ X firm", where the new firm typically says they'll promote them to associate after 6 months to a year if they prove out.
Cheers
So if ure not gonna get it in 2 years for IB but you will if u exit to PE why would anyone stay? It’s a 100k swing in comp between Analyst and Associate that seems like a lot to leave on the table for 1 year
Very few banks do 2 year A2A anymore. Also, the 3rd years at WF rake cash in a very short period. Yes base is like 135k but if you stay for Aso bonus is like almost 100% your salary. I don’t think this even accounts for the sign on you get to stay as an Aso. 1st Year Aso on the other hand are like barely 250k all in when you account for stub.
There are other large IBs and many EBs that have 3 year or 2.5 year analyst cycles. WF does occasionally promote in 2 years (I was promoted in 2 along with others). This is hard to get and is now an exception, not something that happens regularly for top performers.
Is now a good time to join Wells?
I’d say so. Quickly growing platform across all groups, especially with the asset cap lifted and a bunch of solid senior hires. Quality of analysts and summer analysts seems to have gotten better over the last couple years as well, would expect it to continue. Comp is on par with other banks with potentially chiller hours and a better culture.
Ex-WF Analyst
It really depends. Additionally, I would take the stance that if you are optimizing for exits, WF is still NOT there. We are talking generalist buyout, MM-UMM NY / CHI / LA / SF. It doesn't punch at the same weight a Citi or BofA would punch at.
For technical skills, I was in one of those groups listed above and I kid you not I touched a model probably 4 times in a deal-related scenario within my first year (ranked top bucket). Training was horrendous honestly, but lowkey lol, pay was insane relative to what we were doing.
Overall growth momentum, think it'll continue with the senior hires, but again, I would really think about what you want to do and NOT base your decisions on momentum that'll take 7-10 years to fully realize.
A couple questions - What is PUR? How were you able to pass the model test to lateral if you didn't touch them much at work? (Curious because I want to move from research to IB and the models we use at my shop are pretty basic)
Where were you able to lateral to?
Ex-WF
Yes, there is a 3 year program at WF. Very rare to get offered an early promo (near impossible) - used to be a common thing. Know of folks on the platform who got all the "green lights" to get the early promo that got struck down by the top. For decision making purposes, it should be viewed as a 3 year program.
Mind sharing what you are doing now after WF? Did you lateral to another bank
Yes, lateraled to another bank. Primarily due to a few reasons, but
1) Technical Skills
WF coverage technical wise was actually so bad. I don't want to shit on the platform, I honestly am super bullish on the platform and stuff long-term, but I kid you not, I modeled probably 4 times MAX in a year. I was paid in the top bucket and honestly, technical wise, I was so behind compared to my EB counterparts. There were months where I turned text comments, made company profiles, and refreshed comps basically for months. For me, I feel that's not great for my junior experience. I will say though the pay, culture, WLB was insane lol. I made easily $180K+ my first year.
2) Exits are really subpar and likely won't improve in the near term
Exits are really mixed. This is because of the WF history. WF used to be a pure-play lender / commercial bank and never a pure-play M&A advisory player. The narrative is changing a bit, but there's no set PE pipelines to the reputable MM/UMM/MF Shops. For me, I wanted that continuity. I do think this might improve, but it's yet to be proven. Exits are mixed generally.
Overall, thankful for WF, but have my own opinion working for the firm for a while. If I was a PE firm, idk if I would say yes to analysts coming out of my group to be hired knowing what we do.
If you are a woman, go work for any Canadian bank. It’s paradise. Do bare minimum and within 4 years you will make a VP.
MS, Barclays and I think JPM do 3 years as well.
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