Credit Suisse NYC Placement Day

Went through the CS placement process a couple of years back and have some thoughts.

1. Top groups are generally Sponsors, M&A, LevFin, and certain industry groups like Tech and Industrials. With CS, not all groups are strong across the board so you have to take this process very seriously.

2. Sponsors is generally everyone's first choice during the placement process so it's pretty much a crapshoot. The analysts will track calls and make comments on each candidate, ranking them as great, neutral, or bad. I would recommend, at least for Sponsors, talking with the team very early to avoid lag due to their busy schedules and other conflicts. Reach out to analysts in December and ramp up calls in January. The team will have a good idea of who they want way before the actual placement day. They also have 1-2 analysts who are the main contacts leading placement day, so making a good impression with them is important. Read up on deals in the Sponsors space and understand debt really well, you won't get grilled on technicals but you should show that you know your shit. Also, make sure you actually try to get to know them and think about if you would vibe with the people over drinks. When you're working shitty hours, you want to make sure it's with people you're chill with.

3. Even if you do everything according to the game plan and rank Sponsors as #1, at the end of the day placement is determined heavily by office politics, HR, and other factors outside of your control. Therefore, you have to be strategic. I would recommend speaking with other top groups and deciding if you like any of those. Ranking other groups as your #1 will allow you to more easily be placed into a strong group since not as many other SAs will rank those as #1.