Middle Market/Boutique Recruitment

Hey all - I've been reading through threads but can't find much info on this topic, so I thought I'd make a post.

I wanted to know if it is possible/how difficult it is to get interviews at middle market and smaller boutique banks without networking (assuming that you have a strong resume). I'm planning to cast a wide net in terms of applications, but I wanted to know if just submitting applications would yield many/any interviews at these kinds of firms. Thanks in advance!

 

For small boutiques like where I'm at (10 people), there is no HR (literally) or formalized recruiting. For our recruiting at the analyst/intern level, I'm the first one to do phone interviews and based on my recommendation, they can talk to my direct manager (an MD) or the associate. The initial recruiting is literally just a LinkedIn posting and having people reach out to their networks to see what sticks. At botiques of this size it's almost a guarantee that the people reviewing your resume are not alumni of your school, just odds wise.

 

Pretty safe to assume that all of the EBs you named will recruit at the same time as if not slightly earlier than the BBs (i.e. when most summer analysts are still working). CV/EVR/LAZ are competing for the same talent as GS/MS/JPM and can generally move quicker when it comes to kicking off a process, after all...no clue about MMs or more local boutiques though

 

How should I go about making contacts in the industry? I am currently interning at Merrill Lynch so I'm sure a few guys there will have some contacts. Other than that I don't really know anyone in the industry and my school has little to no alumni network.

 

With boutiques, I think they are really looking for someone who 'fits' their firm well. Because a lot of it is about personality, I'm not sure it's something you can do too much about... If it's a small shop, they may only have 1 or 2 spots, but because they are small, that one extra person makes more of a difference to the whole office dynamic than in a BB, therefore they are probably more picky than larger firms about who they take on.

I'm sure they could also be looking for someone with very specific experience, perhaps you should target boutiques where your particular experience would be especially relevant??

 

Anywhere between now to September, with a few starting even later. This year things may be different due to the market, but that's how it has been historically.

~~~~~~~~~~~ CompBanker

CompBanker’s Career Guidance Services: https://www.rossettiadvisors.com/
 

[quote=MMmonkey]Does HIG (Bayside) really use glocap? https://www.glocap.com/jobs.jsp?_page=detail&job_id=272022[/quote]

Looks like it. Speaking of - anyone have any experience with Glocap? I had heard they were the best for VC and growth equity, but their pickings seem pretty slim this year.

  • Capt K
- Capt K - "Prestige is like a powerful magnet that warps even your beliefs about what you enjoy. If you want to make ambitious people waste their time on errands, bait the hook with prestige." - Paul Graham
 
Best Response
Spirit of LA:
It's like asking a rich man to cook you food, I guess. Why the hell would we need to know about cold calling? All I had to do was press click a few times to get BB interviews. Jealous?
No.

All I had to do was ask myself, "I want to work here but they don't do OCR at my school. What should I do?" I then thought to pick up the motherfucking phone and call them.

Functional intelligence. You Jealous?

If I had asked people what they wanted, they would have said faster horses - Henry Ford
 

If your definition of a "smaller" MM fund is $1bn-$5bn (I assume by AUM, because no one in their right mind is calling $1bn-$5bn PE funds "small"), then you should have no problem recruiting in the first wave, which goes with the megafunds. You should note that most people would call firms with $1bn-$5bn AUM upper MM, which is apparently not what you're looking for. It's the guys that are raising $100mm-$500mm funds that recruit later/off-cycle.

To answer your questions:

How should I got about recruiting at the smaller funds that move after the big funds do? Interview with the big funds anyway. It'll be good practice. Plus you never know what you might like until you try it and talk to people.

If I get an exploding offer during the first wave of recruiting, is there a way to go through an expedited process with the smaller funds? No, smaller firms actually tend to have more drawn out interviews because they aren't on the same "rush" schedule that the megafunds are on. Also, your offer will explode in 24-48 hours - there is no "shopping" of your offer. If you don't like it then you don't take it, end of story. This isn't school anymore, and there's no one to protect you.

Or would it be possible to interview ahead of schedule? No (usually). Not unless you have some sort of family or personal connection.

How should this work when dealing with head hunters? You tell them what you want, then hopefully they send you stuff that resembles that. More likely what happens is they just send you stuff that they think will fit you well, which may or may not fit what you actually want.

Hope this is helpful.

 

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