About to start in Sydney - What can I expect?
Hi guys,
I'm about to start as an analyst in a corporate finance team doing predominantly M&A at a small firm in Sydney (jumping after a little over a year in accounting).
I was hoping someone working in the industry could shed some light (really anything) on IB in Australia and maybe the hours expected of junior analysts in MM firms as I haven't seen any recent posts about IB in Australia for a while.
Any response would be appreciated!
Cheers,
Bump
Oh which firm? PM me if you'd like.
The hours aren't too bad in Australia, culture is way better in SYD than NY.
Hi, Thanks for the reply! I'm starting at a small firm that is relatively new (i'm one of the first junior analysts they're hiring) so i'm a bit cautious of giving names. I do have a bunch of questions about the industry if that's ok?
(a) How beneficial is having your CA in the industry? I networked with a lot of ex-accountants for this role who have this qualification but i have noticed it doesn't seem as common when lurking on LinkedIn. (b) Is the jump to the buy-side still quite rare in Australia? I've seen on some older posts stating that in Australia it's more common to see a ''career banker'' but has this changed since there seems to be a lot more PE and AM offices popping up in the past few years. (c) What does comp look like for junior analysts and how does the bonus structure work? I've heard that at some shops, albeit normally corporate finance teams in professional services firms, you don't even get bonuses. (d) How common is it to jump from a small shop into a EB/BB? and what would the optimal time-frame look like to do this?
Thanks heaps.
Sort of a similar trajectory, managed to get into M&A after being in accounting.
From my experience CA literally doesn’t matter. Some may see it as a hint towards the idea that you MAY be on the stronger side technically, but other than that, it’s virtually pointless. Might have some merit in CorpDev roles though.
Moving from MM to BB/EB happens but it’s all a bit of a waterfall. First they will try to fill the position with those from other BB/EB then Big 4 M&A/FDD and then it will be from small shops in my experience. As long as you’re getting good experience you’re sweet. As you become more senior the chance of a lateral increase substantially as the market is quiet small. Laterals are in most cases for A2/A1.5 roles (at the minimum) as there is a plentiful supply of grads for the A1 roles. Your best bet is to try securing a place at a bank with a good brand name that is not quiet yet at that top tier level yet which will help open doors down the road.
Hope that helps.
Awesome thanks heaps for that. How did you find the transition from accounting? They've assured me that I won't be thrown in the deep-end but i haven't really had any experience in finance. Is there anything that you wish you would have known before making the jump?
I got pretty lucky with my team. The guy that interviewed me seemed to like me and waited for my start date to put me on his live deal from my first day there - no complaints. He helped me speed up my learning big time.
Regarding getting thrown in the deep-end, I didn’t feel like it was that bad given that you’ve done your finance self-study at least to some extent which I assume you have back in your Uni days, be it reading books, interview or modeling guides. You will get most things at least to a 50% capacity and will be picking up on the next 50% along the way. Accounting is a good foundation in my view.
In any case, I don’t think you should be scared, it’s a great thing to be exposed to new things to learn about, so just embrace it and make the best of it. Everyone knows your background at your new place and will have an idea of your strengths and weaknesses, and will hopefully support you accordingly.
What I wish I had known? Suppose at this point I'm happy I did my self-study back in the uni days when I was trying to secure internships which I went really hard at. Nowadays there’s just not much time to do this and it’s a great thing to be technically strong and ‘GET’ things when explained. This is all considering that I was a pure accounting student.
are you coming from the US?
From WB??
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