Wells Fargo Investment Banking
I am starting at WF soon.
I will be in a coverage group that is ranked highly at the bank (think REGAL, FIG, Energy). I am excited to join but also very focused on my long-term career. How will the exits be? I understand that the deal flow won't be as high as at BofA, GS, MS.
You’re fine. Strong bank with great people regardless of the hardos shitting on it
Also going to be at WF but in a weaker group and share the same concerns. These things are always opaque, especially as juniors, but I wish there was a way to know if the uptick in M&A my group did when things were all crazy was going to be an indicator of the direction the group was going to be able to maintain once things get back to normal or if it was just a flash in the pan because there was so much activity at the time and we're going back to pitch city + debt stuff once the market recovers.
Makes me feel like one has to lateral the first chance they get to get a look at buyside especially if they're in one of the weaker groups like myself. It doesn't help that nearly every thread on WSO calls WF a joke. I know I'm being stupid/an intern about this stuff but its hard to get some perspective on this stuff
The wells platform is on a serious tear. Hired Tim O Hara from blackrock last year to run Banking. Hired the head of TMT from CS, Brian Gudofsky (an old colleague of Frank Quattrone) last winter to head IB, hired Andy Rosenburgh to head FIG, hired Sesh Raghavan from Evercore to lead Power and just poached Jeff Hogan to co head M&A from MS.The IB also broke the top ten of deal advisors last year.BBG just wrote a pretty good article about all of this
To those reading this, it’s all very simple. The place was run poorly by a Mgmt team that was uninterested in IB and barely understood how to leverage their balance sheet to get involved with sponsors. The old management teams didn’t even want ambitious people around. I’ve been here since my An years and love where things are headed. The people who are uncomfortable with the changes tells you all you need to know.
That mismanagement began to change when Charlie came, Jon Weiss, Tim O’Hara (former CEO of CS IB), Brian Gudofsky (former head of TMT at CS), Jeff Hogan (Head of TMT M&A at MS)…I think our TMT group is heading in the right direction. For what it’s worth, I know FIG has a new group head coming in soon from CS.
It’s also worth noting that I just got paid multiples of what some bUlgR tOp brAckeTs get paid. Wells not a BB tho!!
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-11-04/wells-fargo-hires-se…
https://www.reuters.com/markets/deals/wells-fargo-taps-morgan-stanley-v…
https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20220418005383/en/Tim-O’Hara-to-Join-Corporate-Investment-Bank-as-Head-of-Banking-Rob-Engel-Named-Chairman-of-Banking