Midlevel Bankers

Does anyone find a lot of midlevel bankers (VPs/Directors) to be fairly useless? I generally find anyone I deal with at the MD level to be at least fairly competent. When I have a discussion with most of the midlevel folks, they bob and weave to avoid actually answering any questions. I find they also waste a lot of my time reiterating the same information and require me to be very prescriptive on what we want. I don't really have any complaints on the execution side, which I guess is the part of the process they've mastered. I didn't feel this way when I was a banking analyst, but there probably was a subset of midlevel people who lacked sound client management skills.

The above is in reference to coverage bankers. I think product bankers need to get used to actually providing value add earlier in their careers. This is based on my experience with mid-lower tier bulge bracket banks in the U.S. Perhaps other banks select for more impressive junior talent.

What do you all think? I have to say being on the other side of the table from the bankers is pretty sweet, even if sometimes they frustrate me.

4 Comments
 

This is interesting commentary. I recently switched firms and was surprised at the lack of M&A understanding that VPs in coverage groups possessed. It goes beyond just process concepts to contemplation of what makes an asset valuable to others in the market.

The positioning done by industry group bankers I've seen (without product bankers) is shockingly poor. Industry landscape provides the context around a business model, but it does not explain the differentiation and uniqueness.

 
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