William Blair WLB, Culture and Comp
Anyone have any insight into the culture, WLB and comp at William Blair? Particularly, in their C&R group?
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bump. curious about tech as well
bump
Depends the location you are staffed. A rough history of the tech group:
-it grew gradually into a major player in the umm space prior to Covid and pre Covid continued the growth
-grew massively during Covid/ had an enormous boom in transactions and was short staffed paid super well
-cut like 1/3 the staff after things slowed down and had smelly bonuses
-smaller group than it once was and we are no longer in the golden age, but it’s still going to be a great group.
Source: Worked in the group in the transaction boom era. Many of my colleagues are still there, most however have left since it’s IB. Chicago office tends to be more kind, Atlanta and SF tend to me harsher. Boston in the middle.
I’ll add, I think the group is underrated on this forum because it’s Midwest centric and this forum is all nyc or bust generally. The transaction experience you get is highly relevant to umm PE or growth equity and can be helpful for VC/ entrepreneurship. The Midwest focus means many people finish the stint and either stay in IB, or go to corporate dev, but a ton of great shops have been exited to. Gtcr, marlin, insight, vista, tcv, wcas, etc.
Bump
Heard anecdotally the C&R group is super sweaty
Closer friend worked at the c&r.
It is super sweaty, very long hours. There are a lot of type A personalities. Lot of “pitch work. The pay is street, bonuses have been underwhelming. Exits are usually to strategic finance type roles. Haven’t seen/followed MF/UMM exits.
Run my friend
Can someone elaborate? A lot of posts just say sweaty, but no information on why it's sweaty. Any insight? How is the culture?
bump
Have heard c&r specifically is crazy sweaty, working 120 hour weeks every week
Any insights on other groups? Tech, HC?
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No wayyyy. Associate or Analyst?
Don’t have info on tech or HC, but my source was from an analyst within the group
Worked there a couple years ago. Was in the HC team. I personally had a great time, amazing culture. But they also did fire a lot of people during the 2023 RIFF lol
Do not go to the C&R team at Blair. Awful culture and hours. The turnover in their senior analyst and first year analyst class speaks for itself. Multiple departures from the senior analyst class prior to full cycle bonus and even turnover in the first year class.
There has also been very high turnover with associates. Two lateral associate hires left within 6 months of being there.
Awful leadership on the team with nobody looking out for the juniors. There are never protected weekends (ever), staffing is not good, and leadership does not look out for people. GOOD LUCK if you are going to that group.
I can’t imagine associate working 100 hours. Almost unheard of besides from during 2021. The current associate all looks like they been there for 1 year, has things improved over the past 1-2 years?
Associates working >90 during deal sprints is not entirely uncommon in Houston / energy
Also a reason why you have people in energy IB who refuse to recruit for energy / infra PE
Of course, during deal sprints. It sounds like people are consistently working 100+ hours at Blair. I don't even see a lot more deals closed compared to the HL / Piper of the world.
Does anyone know if it's true that people got $20-50K in bonus or is that just for bottom bucket anl / aso?
Many VPs+ have left for other C&R groups
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