Just wondering, how does a bank such as Goldman handle, and more specifically staff, their regional offices? Are they easier to get into? Industry or group specific?
To get an offer at Goldman Atlanta or Blackstone Atlanta or something, how "low" does the barrier of entry drop? Bottom of the class at Harvard instead of the top? More Fuqua and Darden MBA's instead of Ivy's? Lateral hires from lesser banks/firms?
No one really talks about these regional offices, and I understand that they're more than a bit different than NYC, but how does it work exactly?
Interested to hear this as well.
As long as it's not equities in Dallas you're good.
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Regional offices are kind of weird animals - first of all they're certainly not created equal. Many banks with strong TMT franchises have very very competitive SF/Menlo Park/Palo Alto offices, likewise in LA for old school tech and Real Estate, Houston or Calgary for energy/natural resources, and Miami for Lat Am. But if banks' franchises are weak in those spaces, those offices are basically backwaters. It really comes down to how strong the group is locally. Much more hit or miss than NYC.
The recruiting base is also a bit different. Regional offices also tend to interview/recruit locally, so if you're gunning for say, JPM Chicago, which is a stong regional group for financial sponsors type work, you're probably better off coming from U Chicago than Harvard, even though a Harvard guy probably has a better shot at the New York office. It's not like a direct hierarchy where a mid-tier ivy recruit trumps all the local recruits if they're willing to go to a regional office.
I would definitely expect an Atlanta office to have more kids from southern schools that aren't as well represented in NYC. At the analyst level I'm thinking Emory, and at the analyst and associate level Fuqua and Darden/Duke and UVA. (Not that Duke and UVA aren't well represented in NYC, they definitely are. I am just guessing they perform relatively better compared to the ivies in the Atlanta or Charlotte ofices.) Plus a healthy smattering of smart people from relatively mediocre schools around the south. But (ignoring the Miami Lat Am stuff, since that's it's own pandora's box) Atlanta isn't the finance hub of the south, nobody really gives a fuck about Atlanta - the high finance hub in the south is Charlotte.
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What does this even mean? The only way you are going to be able to move to another group in a different city or exit to the buyside is if you are qualified. It doesn't matter the where you are located, it matters how qualified you are. Some of the regional offices have done bigger deals than the New York office at many firms.
Concur, with above. In Calgary we take on very few grads from out east or the US, and in return, recognize that our options to re-locate include Houston and very few spots else. Also, how 'left out' your group feels will be decided by where the decisions are made. If the head of your group is in TO or NY, you're back water satelite and it sucks. If your team lead is in your city, and they have actual clout, you probably have a good team and it's fun.
This may be fairly obvious (apologies if it is), but it can be helpful to track the people down on linkedin so you can see where they're recruiting from / hiring from. As long as it's a somewhat sizable office you should be able to get a pretty good feel for the demographic.
If you are applying to a typical regional office and are not either A) from around that region or B) going to school in that region they will be incredibly suspicious that you're just casting a wide net and that this is a back up. I superdayed with MS Chicago and was hammered with questions and suspicions about why the hell I would want to work in Chicago and where else I'm applying (I'm from the north east) even though I go to a school in the midwest. This does not apply to hotshot groups like energy in TX or tech in Cali as they know any kid interested in for example oil and gas will want to be in TX regardless of where they're from.
The funny thing is they were absolutely right that it was a backup to NYC and despite my best efforts I couldn't convince them otherwise.
I'm interested in southern MBA's, so this really interests me too. A question along similar lines:
If you are going to work in the south (or any region--just insert another bank), would your exit opportunities be better working at the main campus of a MM bank like Raymond James, or working in the regional office of a firm like Goldman?
Question is sort of confusing - are you a southern MBA student looking for advice on where to go post-MBA or are you asking which of those options is better pre-MBA?
Really it doesn't matter either way - if you're an MBA kid and you're so unsophisticated in terms of knowledge of the wide wonderful world of winance that you even have to ask this question, it's really too late for you to be thinking about exit ops. You should be thinking about where you want to make your career, not about what the best steping stone is.
If you're asking which one will help you more in terms of MBA admissions in the south, it's substantially similar. Both shops are well known and inarguably legitimate, and assuming a brand name shop, which both are, banking is basically banking as far as the MBA admissions people are concerned. Raymond James vs. Goldman regional office isn't going to be a huge differentiator on your resume. Go to the shop you believe you'll receive better mentorship at.
I have a non-finance background and am looking to apply to MBA programs next fall and am thinking about the type of work I would like to do immediately post-MBA. The OP asked about how the main vs. regional offices of a firm like Goldman compare to one another and then people talked about prestige, exit opps, etc.. I was asking how a regional office of a BB compares to the main office of a MM. I also don't understand why you think exit opportunities are not something I should be considering. If I am looking to get an IB associate role for a couple of years after my MBA, then of course I am going to be thinking about which bank offers the best long-term exit opps in the region I prefer to live (southeast or mid-atlantic)
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Goldman Atlanta is just PWM so it's hard to compare it to NYC IBD. I know someone that works there with less than a mind blowing resume, but again it's difficult to compare.
As far as BX atl, this is M&A and is still hard as fuck to get into. It's a smaller team and the people there have all killed it. They mostly just like living and working in the south vs. NYC.
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