William Blair - WFH Experience
For any current analysts or those with knowledge of the situation, what's the WFH situation been for WB? Have they made good-faith efforts to maintain the strong culture they usually pride themselves on, or is the experience falling in line with the rest of the industry?
Would also like to hear about Baird since these two firms are usually in the same sentence.
They are a nightmare on fire within a dumpster. Things have gotten to point of 4am+ every night for analyst through VP. Culture dead, never was there to begin with to be fair. Large propaganda machine
also curious about Piper Sandler
Piper WFH has been really manageable/understanding in my experience so far. Have a had a couple of bad weeks with a lot of random requests that stacked up for a poor time but that's normal for IB. Overall have had a really great experience. I have heard bad experiences in the past from WSO but it definitely seems like they are making strides in the right direction.
Which office? Incoming this summer for FT and have heard mixed things depending on group / location. NY HC groups sounding super busy.
Can anyone shed light on the rest of the top mm as well (HL, HW, Jefferies)
bump
Bumping for HL as well
My friends there are getting killed.
Explain?
Bump
The firm is trying its best, but it is definitely sweaty. Beyond over this.
Has the firm given any guidance re: when everyone would be back in the office?
Incoming Blair analyst, nervous about this whole deal. Thanks man.
Seems mid summer is the expectation with people being allowed to go in earlier, but most still aren’t. I wouldn’t be worried about the whole thing—the class behind you started remotely and they seem to be doing just fine/ will empathize and offer tips. Also, can I ask why you are worried about starting remotely?
Just worried because it seems like the WFH experience has been abnormally worse for juniors. Not too keen on experiencing the whole thing lol. But what you said makes sense, thanks.
Just worried because it seems like the WFH experience has been abnormally worse for juniors. Not too keen on experiencing the whole thing lol. But what you said makes sense, thanks.
FWIW, I disagree strongly and actually like it better and know many analysts who also like it better. I think it depends your home situation, group, and the type of analyst you are.
I think wfh sucks for a few reasons:
1) slower on boarding if you aren’t assertive about calling people/ asking questions and trying to single out mentors
2) less camaraderie among the analyst class
3) it can feel isolating not seeing people and working all the time
4) the hours aren’t worse due to work from home, it’s due to the fact that m&a markets are crazy. Working in the office during this time would likely be worse, due to how thin stretched many people are
Pros:
1) you can relax/ lay down/ chat with real friends rather than coworkers when you get a 15 minute break
2) even really busy analysts will have random days where things are eerily calm, on these days you can really just do nothing/ watch a movie with your laptop next to you or something
3) You likely get more sleep because removing commuting from the equation can help add hours to your day. I don’t think wfh is what is making analysts get over worked, I think it is the fact that asset prices are high and everyone is trying to get deals done before a potential recession hits. There also has been a ton of economic and technological movement that has altered m&a landscapes due to covid. Going to work in person would just have people overworked more I think.
Overall it’s what you make of it and the group you are in, I wouldn’t be worried about the experience. Also, even if you are remote to start, it might be for training which would get you to mid julyish at which point maybe worst case scenario you have a month of wfh and you then would be in the fall basically and I think most everyone thinks by fall things should be better.
What sort of hours have you been working?
I've heard some people at Blair are in the office? Is this true?
Baird here, people are jumping ship to better platforms across every group.
Any idea what is making people jump ship and to where (ie. other MMs, BB, EB)? Heard Baird's culture is great from an old roommate and wonder if it's holding up in the WFH environment?
Most guys are pulling 90+ a week and bonuses were in line with 2019 numbers despite revenue being up with less headcount. You can’t expect people to stay when the hours are pretty much the same as certain BB and EB groups with meaningful comp difference with worse exit opportunities.
Depends on the group like I said but some groups experience right now doesn’t resemble the rave reviews you read about Baird and Blair from years past.
Any insight into groups? i.e. I know their industrials team is great and gets crushed, but what about consumer, tech, healthcare? Same hours or a little bit better?
Depends your group, but Blair as a firm as been killing it and the m&a markets are pretty hot. In other words, great experience, but you certainly will be working all the time. It’s been discussed on this forum other places, but I’d argue there’s a lot more self determination than people really articulate on this forum. In other words, if you push back, sandbag, and communicate with your team you can prevent having like multiple back to back 3ams and working every weekend. But it’s reasonable to expect/ assume you will work 9am-11pm during the week and likely 6 hours over the weekend on average with it ebbing and flowing based on where your deals are in a process. Training should be easy for many of you starting out though.
Interested to hear if anyone can comment on Raymond James London WFH experience?
Incoming Blair analyst and spoke to a few team members, all have said its the busiest the firm has ever been (breaking all their own records) but they were all really happy with bonuses and it sounds like people are trying to make the experience work well for juniors.
What group? I'm going to S&I
tech. I heard that tech/HC are the busiest just given covid, whereas S&I and C&R are a bit more chill
Second year Blair analyst. Open to answering questions not addressed above.
What's the attrition rate been like? What steps are seniors taking to improve the junior experience?
It’s been high. We’ve seen a good number of people leave across the analyst, associate and VP levels. Umm, idk they’re truthfully not doing anything in particular to get people to stay. We get some nice emails and we’ve gotten $2,020 and some $2,500 gift cards, I guess.
Is it true people were happy with bonuses? I know my group had a record breaking year deal wise, so wondering if bonuses reflected that given that I know people have been working their ass off
I mean I was pleased with getting $87,500, but it was a little bit of a letdown because they had spent months telling us how strong performance last year was and how bonuses would be strong and then everyone got torched for a $2,500 more than they got last year. 2019: 75/85/100; 2020: 65/87.5/102.5 (aka if you got bottom after this year you got fckd)
Any insight into Associate bonuses?
not much visibility here unfortunately
Do you think SA will be in person or virtual?
the internship would start in like 3 months and they’ve made no mention of full time people going into the office so probably virtual
Have a friend who was an associate at Baird. He quit a few weeks back because of the workload. He said he was pulling 100+ hours for 3-4 months before quitting
These analyst numbers are higher than most firms’ payouts, right?
yep, above market
Yes, the compensation was good and above market, which is why I don’t think anyone was really disappointed with the actual amount. It just wasn’t congruent with the firm’s performance and their messaging after a very tough but productive year.
Especially considering it was one of the most profitable years ever.
Word on the street they were trying to hire like 75 bankers across MD to analyst in Q1
That is accurate. Not aware of anyone leaving WB for another bank. Seldom happens. It’s been exits out of industry all together.
I’d imagine more one-off bonuses and larger bonus pool if this activity persists through year end. Insanity.
Curious for Raymond James as well. Currently an incoming FT and I’m a little nervous after hearing the negative feedback about WFH
What’s Blair’s meal stipend?
30
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