Wells Fargo FAP - How are hours?

Cries

OSaheadI heard once you start the FAP it's hard to quit but after you reach your peak it's time to do other things.

Despite the allusion to jerking off, this statement is strangely correct. When I started in the analyst program at WFC, I could only think about when I was going to jump ship and where I was going to go. However, 3 weeks into it, I can't imagine working for anyone else. My team is awesome, the work is enjoyable, have a sweet boss, learning a ton, and the senior members on my team have some pretty amazing experiences that they share with me on a daily basis. The hours are good(8:30 to 7pm unless there is mass dealflow, and rare weekends), the nominal salaries are the same as an NYC IBD (even if you are in Charlotte, with very low cost of living. Pretty sure I pocket more cash than the slaves in NYC), but I hardly consider this the analyst grind that everyone else speaks of.

In terms of the work you will do, its basically the same as IBD - modeling cashflows, EBITDA, EV, comps, etc. Many of the groups are industry specialized, which is awesome - utilities, E&P, healthcare, restaurant chains, sponsors, etc. The products you offer are term loans, revolvers, and bridges. If you are in a regional group, you will probably get just plain revolver refinancing as your only type of dealflow. If you are, like me, in an industry group that is consolidating like crazy, you are working on financing M&A deals, which still requires you to model out the acquisitions. The key difference is that there are no pitchbooks. The corporations we bank NEED these products - it is a question of whether or not we can justify giving them the loans. Instead, we write internal memos that essentially explain all of the analyses we did in detail, and indentify key reasons not to give the client the money they need.

Exit opps are the same as IBD at just about any MM. You can either lateral up to BB-level, out to an MBA, or move to sales internally.

The purpose of the corporate banking group is to give out cheap financing to companies who need it, while taking on as little risk as possible. We attach the smallest interest rates we can to our loans, to incentivize the client to use WFC's other services (treasury management, capital markets, etc).

As for training, there are classes internal to the bank that you must take. They pay for you to take up to Intermediate Accounting if you havent already done so, they have vendor programs like TTS, they sponsor a few analyst trips throughout the year, and theres formal analyst training in San Fran for a few weeks.

5-10k signing bonus, 60-80k base, and ~10k end of year bonus. I recently met some analysts from around the country, and the base salaries seemed to be almost random from person to person. I think the salary was a function of two things: what year you were hired, and how much they wanted you over the runner-up. I also negotiated up after the offer.

I was just telling someone else in a PM today about it, but I'm really glad I took this offer. As many of you out there, this site cast the prestige veil over my eyes. I now realize, however, that there is much more to consider besides prestige.

Cost of living adjusted this is probably good. A 10k bonus sucks for NYC, but 70k/year in Charlotte isn't bad. Cost of Living adjusted, it's about $115k in NYC.

Cries][quote=OSahead As many of you out there, this site cast the prestige veil over my eyes. I now realize, however, that there is much more to consider besides prestige.

Welcome to the real world. There is a whole lot more out there than GS TMT, KKR, etc. I know people there that do really well and also really enjoy the environment. Not in Charlotte, but nonetheless.

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What group did you work in? I'm looking into the CRE group at Wells and would be curious to know how you view your career going forward.

Are you working towards becoming an RM? Or are you doing something differently?

How do you view the growth of your compensation over time? (if that is even something that you put a lot of emphasis/priority on)