Worlds Worst MDs Competition (2026 Edition)

Let’s hear it. Everyone focuses on the rainmakers, but how about those terrible MDs you try to avoid. Leave name or initials and firm below and why they are the worst.

Finalist will be selected in two weeks based on feedback here

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Agreed. But there are ways to do that without throwing people under the bus. From my experience, it’s best to be someone who builds up others and promotes good people. Not fun to be the one running around firing and criticizing people. Would you rather be the treasure hunter or the garbage man. Both are needed in society. I rather aspire to be the treasure hunter and promoter. I encourage other people to do the same. 

Peace ✌️ 

 

Look up UBS TMT or UBS Tech on WSO, it has been heavily covered. The group is a toxic hell-hole that I wouldn't wish on my worst enemy where juniors are consistently abused. I think the only comparable group within the firm is UBS M&A, but that group is bad across all levels not just MD's. UBS FIG is also bad, but not as bad as those two. UBS generally deserves it's reputation at least culturally. 

 

What goes around comes around... let's not put any negative energy out in the world... there's enough of that...

 
[Comment removed by mod team]
 

Our MD called at 9:45 p.m. on a Thurs night because a client might consider a transaction in the next 18–36 months. He asked for a “light five-pager” by breakfast.

By 6 a.m. Saturday, the deck was 100 pages and included a full operating model, three merger scenarios, an LBO, precedent transactions dating back to 1987, 64 tombstones, and a page titled “Why Us” that was mostly his headshot. His comments were: “Make it shorter,” “Needs more detail,” and “Move every logo one click to the left.”

At the Sunday rehearsal, he arrived in tennis whites, asked which company we were pitching, then spent 20 minutes explaining that this particular CEO hated bankers who wasted his time. He made us print and spiral-bind 18 color copies because “real decision-makers don’t read off screens.”

The meeting was on Zoom.

During the pitch, he called the CEO by the name of his largest competitor, claimed he had followed the company “for over a decade” despite it being founded three years earlier, and presented a “proprietary strategic framework” consisting of three arrows pointing in a circle around the word VALUE.

When the CFO asked what the framework actually meant, the MD paused, nodded thoughtfully, and said, “Excellent question. I’ll let the analyst address the technical side.”

Halfway through, he accidentally shared his entire screen. Open tabs included:

* “What does [client] actually do?”* The competitor’s investor-relations page* A tee-time confirmation for 2:10 p.m.* An email from his assistant titled: “Reminder: CEO’s name is NOT Steve”

The CEO’s name was not Steve. The MD had called him Steve twice.

We lost the pitch. In the debrief, he said the materials “felt junior,” blamed the associate for failing to create chemistry, and ordered the team to stay late to “own the outcome.” He then left for his tee time.

That evening, he expensed a $4,800 bottle of wine under “market data” and gave the analyst a bottom-bucket review for lack of attention to detail.

Six months later, he was promoted to group head for “exceptional client judgment” lol

 

Anonymous Monkey.

Our MD called at 9:45 p.m. on a Thurs night because a client might consider a transaction in the next 18–36 months. He asked for a “light five-pager” by breakfast.

By 6 a.m. Saturday, the deck was 100 pages and included a full operating model, three merger scenarios, an LBO, precedent transactions dating back to 1987, 64 tombstones, and a page titled “Why Us” that was mostly his headshot. His comments were: “Make it shorter,” “Needs more detail,” and “Move every logo one click to the left.”

At the Sunday rehearsal, he arrived in tennis whites, asked which company we were pitching, then spent 20 minutes explaining that this particular CEO hated bankers who wasted his time. He made us print and spiral-bind 18 color copies because “real decision-makers don’t read off screens.”

The meeting was on Zoom.

During the pitch, he called the CEO by the name of his largest competitor, claimed he had followed the company “for over a decade” despite it being founded three years earlier, and presented a “proprietary strategic framework” consisting of three arrows pointing in a circle around the word VALUE.

When the CFO asked what the framework actually meant, the MD paused, nodded thoughtfully, and said, “Excellent question. I’ll let the analyst address the technical side.”

Halfway through, he accidentally shared his entire screen. Open tabs included:

* “What does [client] actually do?”* The competitor’s investor-relations page* A tee-time confirmation for 2:10 p.m.* An email from his assistant titled: “Reminder: CEO’s name is NOT Steve”

The CEO’s name was not Steve. The MD had called him Steve twice.

We lost the pitch. In the debrief, he said the materials “felt junior,” blamed the associate for failing to create chemistry, and ordered the team to stay late to “own the outcome.” He then left for his tee time.

That evening, he expensed a $4,800 bottle of wine under “market data” and gave the analyst a bottom-bucket review for lack of attention to detail.

Six months later, he was promoted to group head for “exceptional client judgment” lol

What type of firm was it?

 
[Comment removed by mod team]
 

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