Rx Recruiting: What else is required?
Rising sophomore starting to narrow down which cities/groups I want to be apart of. There’s tons of firms in a certain city that only have an Rx group and I don’t want to limit my chances. However, how difficult is it to casually recruit for Rx? Does restructuring require extensive studying or can it just be something you read the guides/know a bit about and it be a good “backup” option?
I ask because I’m familiar that Houston energy is moreso fit (want to know why energy more than do you know the energy technicals in-depth a ton). Is restructuring the same way?
everyone gunning for RX is a hardo. You can't just casual rx recruitment. Plus there's a ton of extra bankruptcy/legal/credit knowledge that you need to learn on top of all the M&A stuff. Unless you are okay with going for a tier-2 rx shop (GLC, Miller-buckfire), but even for those you need to have really good rx knowledge
Great insight, thanks a ton. Do you know which other industry/product groups follow the same standards (significant supplemental studying/field knowledge)? Specifically, does real estate, TMT, Industrials, or PCA investment banking follow closely to Rx in that it’s highly specialized/you can’t “casually recruit” for them? Just trying to see which firms on my targeted list I should cross off
M&A is still m&a. You just need to learn some extra industry knowledge (not easy but def not on the same scale of learning rx as that’s some completely different stuff)
Being an eternal virgin is a good start
Rx recruiting is hard. Source: Rising junior who just went through recruiting and tried to "recruit Rx casually" as you mention, with limited results (got a few interviews at good shops and failed them miserably).
From what I've seen, people really gun for Rx and consider it to be one of the best banking gigs you can get. Also, as poster above correctly stated, there is so much more to it than just reading a few extra guides (although the Rx guides are a good start).
You really have to live and breathe this stuff as the technicals are much more niche and they do test your knowledge of the space (e.g. understanding recent deals in much more detail, more specific debt/Rx techs, knowledge of older landmark deals/cases that changed the industry, etc.).
If it's something you're really interested in I would definitely go for it; one of the coolest spaces to be in imo. However, very hard to break in (although all of banking is)
Thanks a ton, guess I’ll go ahead and cross off any Rx shops. Do you know if there’s any other industry’s similar in that you can’t casually study them? Curious about real estate, industrials, PCA, or if consumers follows the same logic.
As poster above said, for the most part it’s just:
May be missing stuff, but I recruited for a niche sector and found these were the things that came up most.
The TMT boutiques (Q, LionTree, Raine, Tidal) grill you on industry knowledge very hard. PCA and RE can be casually recruited from as they demand isnt as hot and they get candidates that failed m&a recruiting (although there are more and more secondaries hardos now so it might change). I dont even know any industrials or consumers boutiques.
Generally the difficulty is more related to how many hardos are attracted to it (TMT and Rx are filled with them) as opposed to actual learning curves of the industry. Infra is a very technical field but they dont rlly grill that hard because there isnt enough hardos interested.
M&A will largely be the same - PCA is easy to learn but very different
FYI most ppl gunning for top Rx seats (PJT, EVR, HL, LAZ, GUGG) treat m&a (even EVR M&A) as back ups. Personally know someone that chose HL Rx over GS Classics. So know you cant rlly casually recruit for it when this is your comp
Bro tried to sneak Gugg in there
Clear sign you don’t know rx scene 🤣. Sure it’s not PJT/EVR but gugg’s team has been dominating the past year. A top 5 seat arguably
Wdym sneak, they have been killing it recently
having lazard and gugg but no moelis is crazy
U cant directly recruit for Moelis Rx
Ngl at this point I’m probably ‘casually recruiting’ for M&A, have spent the last 2 months on RX technicals, some landmark case law / deals, restructuringinterviews guides and other distressed/RX reading.
RX is sufficiently different that you can try to ‘casually recruit’ for it, but you’ll get blown out of interviews if you’re unprepared.
How do you look into distressed reading? Are there any websites, newsletters, etc?
Caesar Palace Coup is a great starting point. Would absolutely buy the guides as well. Would also buy a few month of subscription of Petition when recruiting is about to kick off for deal walkthroughs (not necessary, and it is $55 a month so not the cheapest commitment).
are you rising junior or rising soph
Absolutely not. RX deals have very tight timelines, very aggressive parties involved and in general, the scope of work is rigorous underpinned by dynamics that you don’t see in a standard M&A deal. I cannot imagine a single RX practice that would hire someone that just “went by” during the interview process. Would suggest to study this stuff religiously or back out.
Just so you know, houston recruiting is not just focused on fit. The majority of questions I received from 3 different banks (all in top 10 Energy IB Groups) were Energy specific technicals.
R u retard? Thx.
I had some Rx interviews and they were all super easy! Mainly just some basic accounting questions.
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