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MOE might be a tier above JEFF, but at this point, I’m wondering what makes GUGG and PWP “elite.”

In terms of large transactions, JEFF has done more $1 billion+ deals than PWP and GUGG combined. Its coverage has also expanded well beyond its traditional strengths.

JEFF’s Houston Energy and Healthcare groups alone bring in more revenue than PWP as a whole.

Just look at the league tables and fee share in LSEG Americas. JEFF is #6, while GUGG is behind even HL. I couldn’t find PWP in top 20

 
Controversial

First Congrats on JEF, this is too obvious lol.

JEF is a volume shop, take bunch of deals instead of quality deals. Plus GUGG and PWP have a way stronger RX franchise. Period.

Take out SMBC then JEF is nothing. Hope they get acquired soon!

 

Not the person who posted the league table above, and I haven’t worked at JEF, but I think he made a solid point.

I worked at a lower-tier EB (GUGG/ROTH/PWP), and we were constantly pitching against shops like JEF/WF/WB/HL. We also did plenty of $300 million deals

The only difference is exits. My group sent two second-year analysts to Bain Capital / Carlyle; not sure if JEFF has the same exits. 

 

Analyst 1 in IB - Gen

First Congrats on JEF, this is too obvious lol.

JEF is a volume shop, take bunch of deals instead of quality deals. Plus GUGG and PWP have a way stronger RX franchise. Period.

Take out SMBC then JEF is nothing. Hope they get acquired soon!

RX is only one of JEF’s product groups, and most of the firm’s revenue comes from coverage-driven M&A. JEF also has another product group (PCA) that is significantly stronger than the PCA platforms at PWP and GUGG, no?

“JEF is a volume shop that takes on a bunch of deals instead of quality deals.” How exactly are you defining “quality”? JEF literally closed more $1B+ transactions this quarter than the two firms you mentioned combined. In terms of client quality, JEF also advises a couple of top-tier sponsors and strategics this year.

“Take out SMBC and JEF is nothing. Hope they get acquired soon!” That is like saying MS would be nothing without MUFG. If anything, isn’t PWP far more likely to be acquired than JEF?

 

What you mean Moelis “might be” above JEF. They are 😂. Least obvious JEF banker

 
Funniest

Congrats on GUGG. Prolly just a junior student who is trying to convince people that GUGG is on par with PWP/MOE and use Jefferies as a scapegoat

 

Honestly, none of these four shops get any institutional respect, individual bankers get respect but there is no brand value from a client perspective at any of them. They are all the same to me although I will say the quality of management at MOE and GG > JEF > PWP (exacerbated by the recent failed deal)

If you’re thinking of lateraling it 100% comes down to which bankers you are working for,

Note: nothing wrong with this, once a banker is good enough to be their own brand, the institution they work for is irrelevant. 

 

Literally equivalent to your parents buying you a Ferrari and you using it to deliver DoorDash. 

 

 

Recruiting: GS > MS > JEFF

Real Work (depend on groups obviously), but JEFF just ran so many processes and they do very standard sell-sides (less bilateral discussions), so their analyst experience is arguably the best + their sweatshop name

 

Just because something is a meatgrinder doesn’t mean surviving it has inherent value or is something to be proud of.

I did time in group/bank the dumbasses on this site jerk off to for “prestige.” It was a waste of 2+ years of my life.

If you spent years in a Vietnamese POW camp with a cattle prod up your ass, yeah you build resilience and some other skills but you’re almost certainly worse off than if you never got subjected to that.

Whereas the Jefferies guys would walk around like they’re hot shit for surviving it, brag about taking more cattle prods than the other camps, and then wherever they go next try to jam cattle prods up everyone else’s ass.

 

I’m surely there’s some people at Jefferies who are lovely people (maybe, I haven’t met any but I’m saying this to be nice) but the current and former Jefferies bankers I’ve interacted with exude a weird form of incel-adjacent/small dick energy.  Like insulting me in an interview for no reason. Or getting into weird dick measuring contests or just unprompted toxicity out of nowhere. Something is clearly very wrong there , like some sort of mass psychosis. 

 

100%, this is a huge generalization but Jeff is a lot of IVY grads that were not good enough for BB/EB and try to make up for it by being dicks

 

The “Ivy” League MBA asos take this to an extreme. Like sure buddy you’re totally  smart because you paid $100k+ a year in your early 30s at a program with a 30% acceptance rate just lol

 

One important reason is that JEFF is very non-target friendly, with plenty of analysts from competitive tier-2 schools (IU, BYU, and SMU) as well as schools less known for finance recruiting (Rochester, Lehigh, and Kenyon)

Breaking in from those backgrounds takes confidence and a bit of ego, so it’s natural for them to take pride in what they’ve achieved

 

That’s exactly why JEFF is shit. Have you ever seen PWP taken any kids from shitty schools like BYU/SMU? All some wanna-be republican trash

 

Lol all you JEF haters get so emotional I swear the company lives in your head rent free. You love to exclaim it’s hell on earth and not really base on anything except old stereotypes from like 15 years ago.

I don’t work at JEF. Idgaf before you all say “congrats on JEF!”.

It’s probably not as bad or as good as the extremes are posting about on here.

But the fact that the top comment above is backing up a claim about JEF outperforming with DATA and FACTS and the JEF haters reply is basically “nuh huh nuh huh no that doesn’t fit my narrative of prestige!” is hilarious to me

 

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