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?
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Would also like to hear about Baird since these two firms are usually in the same sentence.
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?
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.
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.
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)