Boutiques: An Increasingly Attractive Option?

As a non-target aspiring to break into the biz, my options are less abundant than those of a target student. Boutiques remain an intriguing option, especially after reading this article, which discusses top Boutique firms and the benefits of working for them.


And they're also great places to work, according to Vault's annual ranking of the best banks to work for. Smaller firms took five of the top nine places in the rankings.

Centerview Partners — founded in July 2006 by Blair Effron, Stephen Crawford, and Rob Pruzan — placed third in the ranking and took the top spot in 10 of the 19 quality-of-life categories that Vault ranks.

Do certain Boutiques like Centerview offer more appealing prospects than BB banks? Are the opportunities at the top Boutiques any different than that of a BB?

 
Best Response

With all due respect, why would you ever make such an important career decision based off of a Business Insider article?

Boutiques may (I say "may" because I'm not here to get into an argument over which banks are better) be a better place to be than BBs because of: more interaction with clients, more interaction with senior bankers, better exit opps, higher bonuses, doing purely M&A work, winning mandates based off of M&A ability not balance sheet size, etc. That is not to say that these pros cannot be found at BBs, it's just that some of these, such as increased client interaction, are very typical of boutiques, while others, such as better exit ops, are typical of some.

At the end of the day, if you have an offer from a top bank, whether it's a BB or a boutique, I would focus more so on which bank you fit best in with culturally.

 
Sil:

With all due respect, why would you ever make such an important career decision based off of a Business Insider article?

Better yet why worry about the labels at all? Just look at the firm's deal history, strengths, culture, and capabilities. Unless you're trying to go for a select few funds(which if you were a shoe in for, you'd already know from having attended a sufficiently prestigious prep school or even middle school) the quality of your deal experience will matter at least as much as whether your firm an "EB" or a "BB". That's if your lucky enough to get in. A good majority of the people who try end up having to work a regional shop then lateral over.
 

I'm assuming your mention of the necessity of a prestigious prep school is somewhat facetious, but whether or not it is, what types of funds are you discussing? Things like Pershing, since they tend to hire Ivy tennis players, or something else?

Array
 

I don't think OP understands how competitive EB recruitment is. Seriously.

To give an example - Centerview will take about 15-20 summer analysts this year. That's right, 15 - 20 summer analysts. They came on campus to recruit at my school, and the current analyst told me that they MIGHT take 1 kid from my school. So in essence you pretty much have to be the #1 kid at a target school to even get in the interview room. Then you have to be social enough to vibe with Blair and Robert on a personal level, signifying that you have what it takes to interact with clients at a junior level.

Hardest part is getting the interview, especially if not from HYP. People don't understand that an offer from ANY BB or ANY EB is still a damn good gig. But hey man, anything is possible so start grinding.

 

If you get an offer at a top boutique (e.g. Evercore, Centerview) and an offer at a non-GS/MS bulge bracket (e.g. Citi, BAML), then you take the boutique assuming all else (culture especially) equal. Likewise, if you have a GS offer and a Perella offer then you should probably stick with GS assuming you like the people at both equally.

If you have offers at GS, MS, Evercore and PJT R&R, then go get hammered and pick whatever your heart desires. It's not rocket science.

 
poopybutthole:

Yes, EB's are becoming increasingly appealing. But no, if you can't get into BB's, you're probably not getting into EB's.

Not right off the bat. A lot of them prefer to staff primarily with laterals and take limited numbers out of school.

 

I think that EBs are not necessarily easier to get in compared to a BB but there are fewer people who know of and apply to a Lazard vs Goldman. I think that is the main difference: less applicants but also less spots available. BBs are also much more accessible since you can try to apply to their multiple diversity events and they have much more recruitment.

If OP were talking about no-name boutiques it would be different though I've heard on this forum that the no-names typically want people with 1-2 years full time experience?

 

This is a great discussion, I sympathize since I am currently torn between BB/Boutique:

Even though I always wanted to work at a BB I got offered a position as analyst at a boutique and for the first few month I thought this would only be a ladder to a BB. But after a while I am starting to appreciate a lot of things that might change my future plans.

This is what I have found out in these 6 months as an analyst in my boutique:

  • THE HOURS ARE LESS CRAZY: Yes, sometimes you still work until 5 a.m.. But this is an exception, not the rule. Of course it is not a 9-5 job, but its a whole lot better than a BB, specially since I am studying for the CFA Level II exam.

  • LESS ASSHOLES THAN THE USUAL BB: Once again, I can only vouch for my experience in my boutique. But even though there are still some jerks, the ratio to total people is smaller than I see in other places.

  • COMPENSATION HAS HIGH AND LOWS: as an analyst the fixed comp is low. But our bonus can be pretty high. Since my company has partners with strong connections, we have a lot of mandates on the pipeline and our bonuses are paid at the closing of the deal, not at the end of the year. But sometimes you only close small deals that don't result in large bonuses. Other times you do one big deal and you are set for the year.

  • MORE DIRECT EXPERIENCE ON DEALS: besides the possibility of higher bonuses, this is currently what I'm loving about a boutique. Every time I sit down in a meeting with one of the founders (each has more than 30 years of experience in IB) in order to pitch a deal, it is better than all classes I ever took in college combined. These people sit in front of businessowners and CFOs and simply dominate them, they can sell condoms to a nun. It is awesome to deal directly with the MD or one of the partners, and it is even better to deal with a CFO or CEO of a company we're buying/selling. Even though I've been here for only 6 months, they are starting to give me my own deals which I report directly to the MD (mainly buy-side for a PE in tech start-ups), they are small deals (1-10 million), but I am learning a hell of a lot.

  • THEY LOOK FOR PARTNERS: since our team is small (around 10-12 people) and we always have a lot in the pipeline, the founders are afraid of key members leaving and have set that every year there will be a commitee to offer partnership to some of the employees, with a whole new set of bonuses and less crazy hours than the normal boutique analyst or AA.

So this is my two cents for this discussion. I think that at first I was very impressed with the prestige of BB regardless of other factors that are much more important. I'm currently still thinking about what to do if other opportunities in BB appear (I'm currently going through a recruitment process), but I don't know if I will accept it if it comes my way unless it would be really really good offer.

Hope this helps, someone.

 

Always awesome to hear first-hand experience. The article also highlighted the generally excellent deal flow and exposure to clients as a definite pro of working at a Boutique.

Thanks a lot for sharing, cheers mate.

 

How would an Associate look at an EB vs BB? Assuming said Associate has aspirations for becoming a MD how does an EB fare vs BB?

I would assume when you are given the responsibility for bringing deals in its far more difficult than at an EB given the size of the deals being done and MDs who already have established relationships with clients.

Any thoughts? I'm probably wrong about the above but curious to know what insiders think.

 

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