What the hell is going on in Barclays?!
Title says it all. Anyone that can give some insight on whether it would be wrong of me to accept an offer with them.
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Is it your only offer?
The very fact you're posting this tells me all I need to know. You as potential intern know nothing about the bank. Does Barclays pay top of street? No. Is there great job security if you're good? Yes. HC, industrials, sponsors, power, and tech all regularly send kids to MFs with serious optionality. It's a BB still and will be for a while. Nothing is "going on" at Barclays that isn't happening at most other banks.
Other banks are laying off workers. Barclays is having its bankers leave them, I may not be an insider, but that tells you something about the firm. Even in comp is low, if you have other reasons to like the firm, you stay.
TLDR they hired an ex CS guy to lead the investment bank.
Marco Valla was seen as the next heir to lead the bank but they chose the CS dude instead.
Valla left and got hired to lead UBS. Next thing you know he’s poaching tons of MDs from Barclays coverage and many other MDs in general are leaving to go to other banks
Plenty of discussions on the forum here, the gist of it is - Barclays is on a downward spiral, serious talent drain, I mean MDs leaving is normal but 32 MDs, that too senior tenure (10+ years) MDs leaving is a disaster (cascading effect on pipeline, good VPs leaving, client relationships) think of it as UBS after Moelis left, it will be a hollow place and move away from the top 10 ranking in the next 2-3 years for sure
It can be avoided if they manage to replace the 30 ppl by poaching but highly doubt the management at Barclays is in a mood to spend c.$100mm on 2 year MD guarantees now
So net net, if you are an analyst with competing offers, Barc should be your last, do your time and get out for others it’s contextual but consider your options and think seriously about moving if you are already there
An2 in coverage group at Barc. Would ideally like to hit a Citi or BofA for my associate+ years, but lateral market shut rn. You think it would be smarter to lateral and GTFO or stay and be someone tenure?
Very contextual, I know BofA is seriously over staffed, citi has had its own set of prbs over the past few years ranging from pay to pipe to recent firings… at your level, better to look at boutiques PJT, Moelis etc, they bulked up their senior ranks recently and suspect they will do same for the juniors as well when deal activity picks up + boutiques seem to be the structure that works for better comp in wallstreet right now anyway
“Whoever prayed for my downfall pray harder”
Heard their tech team has been decimated. Would avoid.
The way PE recruiting is going, you'll be interviewing before you even really start so the question is more whether that's your interest. If so, Barclays isn't going under in the next 18 months and has a strong legacy brand name so you'll still get the looks from headhunters. If you want to hedge your bets a little and think about staying in banking as a plan B into associate, then maybe see what other banks in the same / near same tier you get an offer from.
Best answer here. Groups like Healthcare, Industrials and Tech routinely exit to MF/UMM PE options, which will not change anytime soon. If looking to stay associate and up, would look to other (higher paying) banks. In the meantime will see what Spyros Svoronos (former head of Credit Suisse Industrials) does to Industrials and Jim Birchenough (WF Healthcare) does to healthcare.
I’d echo some of the points above.
Barclays is a shit bank that pays people shittily and so the good people leave, then they don’t have enough money to fill the empty seats with good people so they hire shitty senior people, then those shitty senior people 1. Don’t bring in deals and 2. Treat the juniors like shit, thus perpetuating a toxic culture and continuing the death spiral. Saw it really accelerate during my 2 years there and culminate this spring with the huge departures at the senior level (though note that pretty much every “good” senior person on my team was already poached over the past 2 years).
Now, it still is a BB and if you’re motivated and in a decent group you should be able to land UMM/MF PE, if that’s your goal. BUT, if you have an offer at any other BB or EB, I would absolutely take that over Barclays.
The whole “better culture” thing isn’t true (too many external hires in recent years, no longer a core culture) and you’ll take a HUGE discount at bonus time as an analyst (A1s getting ~$15k and A2s getting ~$30k bonuses this year is a crime).
This is very true. Even if you are good, after two years of sucking poison, your toxicity levels will be irreparable.
You will be damaged goods.
An1 in CB... They have us on £40k + £5k disc bonus and seem to think this is generous. Not sure why they pay people like this.
What about IB?
You would take UBS or DB over Barclays?
Bump - any udpates?
Bump, heard bonus numbers weren't great
Don't come here. You will end up regretting it.
What the HELL is going on at Barclays??????!!!!!!!!!! 😳😳😳😳😳😳😳😳😳😳😳😳😳
Kinda crazy how much they recovered since this
Agreed. Thought they were gonna die. So many seniors from there joined my shop because Barc was tanking. Today they’ve recovered and are at a great spot
What do you think changed? I remember signing my offer and stressing because this thread kept popping up on the frontpage a few months ago.
They’re in a good spot now. Culture still sucks but deal flow is at least decent. Paid better than BofA last year and would not be surprised if they do so again this year.
+1, culture is horrendous. Roommate in Industrials works from 9:30-2am consistently. Sundays seem like 18 hour days. Just awful (I’m at JPM and have it nice compared to him)
Curious to hear any updated thoughts—particularly on how they've been performing lately compared to peers like BofA, Citi, UBS, etc. Would also appreciate insights on Tech/HC/IND.
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