Do you think banks over-fired?
Would love to get a discussion going on what your individual take is on these mass layoffs and there repercussions.
I think the general consensus is that banks were bloated because of the boom a couple years ago and now that there isn’t a ton of work going on they are cutting costs to post more attractive gains/losses.
I do think though that some banks did over-fire. I’m not saying that every bank that fired did so terribly, but I definitely think banks that cut people across all groups will need to rehire. Some groups are still producing quite a bit so to blanket layoffs across every group seems a bit uneven in my opinion. I also think that we may see M&A activity spike again soon because of all of the businesses “holding off” until things clear up.
I don’t know though, I’m only a year into this so everything I say is really just thoughts. My group has been slammed for a while and we even let go some people who I thought were quite good at what they did.
Bump
No, there is a structural decline in finance and tech. Physical labor plus manufacturing will become more important
Some did. We won’t know until the market picks up again.
No. The 2020-2021 hiring spree was insane. We were taking anyone with a pulse
Can confirm. I even got a job.
Agreed - saw lots of sub-tier candidates get into my old shop / rival shops which they wouldn't have pre-covid
Thirding this. The hiring in 2021 was nuts - my group is top of our space and typically has pick of the litter from BB/EB for lateral roles... back then we were begging people from LMM boutiques who had under a year of banking and no deal experience to to sign offers. Some were awesome diamonds in the rough but most were incredibly underqualified
Disagree. Some banks overfired. My group fired a bunch yet still getting crushed.
We hired a bunch of laterals during the boom. Almost all got laid off.
In contrast, all “on cycle analysts” were spared, many of whom were clearly weaker than the laterals we fired.
Different groups conduct hiring / layoffs differently. Unfortunately, my group overfired - not substantially but still noticeably - and the firing itself was inefficient.
Yes, they did. Dipshit staffer fired my analyst which has made my life incredibly more challenging as I have much less time.
Tried to advocate to let him stay but there was some issue with him and another Associate - so here we are now at 1:37am updating the MP alone when I could just check my analyst’s work in the morning…
I have to admit that some of those analyst, although sometimes tough to work with, if they move the needle a little bit can be somewhat helpful until you get someone new.
Yeah my analyst moved the needle for me quite a bit. Still made some mistakes but nothing crazy and is expected as analyst.
Still confused why so many VPs (who don’t do much) / less competent analysts stayed.
Shows how politics / favoritism can unfortunately be more of a factor than utility in these circumstances
Little known fact: in order to be registered as an investment bank you must be either over-hiring or over-firing at all times.
Bank leadership always tends to over hire and over fire, but it never really directly impacts them, so why would they care or be incentivized to change?
Let’s say they did over fire for example.
The remaining guys get slammed, and then eventually they rehire again. No sweat of management’s back.
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