Macquarie (MIRA) - London Office

Know several people in MIRA London:

• Hours are very good - 7-9pm finishes 
• People tend to stay there for a long time
• Lots of people from unconventional backgrounds (esp. technical/engineering on the asset management side of teams)
• Culture is generally pretty healthy, but can be quite meritocratically ruthless to those not up to scratch re. firing
• However, extremely risk-averse (this goes for the bank generally) with centralised bureaucracy galore being run out of Australia
• Geographical focus is very much European - they lack a significant North American presence (not actually a bank in the U.S.) although are trying to expand there. Some investments in East Asia and obviously Australia, but they're trying to move focus away from Australia. Surprising lack of interest in Middle East (KSA, UAE, etc.) infrastructure and generally don't like playing in developing markets (see risk aversion above). 
• Exits to large PE funds and asset managers are very good, with significant placement into the usual suspects 
• Laterals to other banks' IBD is difficult if you do want to do that (no idea why you would)
• Internal and geographical mobility within Macquarie is excellent
• Salary dips a little post-Associate level compared to market, with VP bonuses not being great and progression further upwards quite tough