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Hey mayzin, I'm here to break the silence...any of these links help you?:
You're welcome.
Hi. I had an interview there and spoke to ------ (director). He was really arrogant and came from the legal side of things (didn't know much financial modeling and sounded insecure). Sounds like a terrible place to work and I heard they don't support any PE/HF recruiting so stay away if that's your goal. Also >90% creditor side in the last 3 years (PJT, Moelis, Rothschild, HL, Lazard are all much stronger in Rx and do more debtor-side work).
Can vouch for this, my experience was also largely negative. Several technical oriented phone interviews, did fine and was asked to come in for an in person. Was very honest with them about not having full transaction experience yet, and was ground down in their office for over 5 hours with technicals. They seemed like they were uninterested and were just plain rude at times. Did not respect the fact that I had
(app glitched) Did not respect that fact that I had left work early to head over and kept me for several hours. Never heard back from them again, and haven’t seen them do anything notable since
Same experience here, pretty rude and rushed interview. Was interviewing for a summer intern position and the analyst interviewing didn't seem to care for the interview at all, even though the associate who interviewed me earlier was much nicer. Left the interview with a bad taste of the firm.
Not realted to this post specifically, but are you recruiting for full-time or internship since you mentioned that you don't have full transaction experience? I think we're in the same shoes and I'm a bit confused about what I should do, thank you.
I had the same experience At first I thought it was a test to see how'd I'd react. I soon realized this interviewer was simply out of touch with reality and intentionally abusive. I told him where I grew up and he said "I don't care, did I ask you?" and those were basically my first words of the entire interview lol (AFTER he asked me to tell a bit about myself). I nailed the debt recovery waterfall questions and liquidation analyses technicals (they weren't hard, but the interviewer wanted to pick a fight with every answer, even the undisputedly correct one). Anyway I checked LinkedIn and most of their team (analysts-VPs) is composed of non-targets and they don't place well in Distressed HFs/PE. I hear they're overworked so the interviewer was likely stressed and didn't want to do the interview. I currently work in Rx and they're definitely not in the top 10 in any rankings I see in Debtwire/The Deal/Reorg/Reuters. The overall culture of entitlement and arrogance was a massive turnoff.
Also horrible experience, got canceled and rescheduled on 4 times for an interview... Very rude and arrogant on the phone, felt the need to chew me out for a simple misunderstanding and jumped the gun via cutting me off. The interviewer sounded stressed as hell. From what else I've read on this forum, not a good place to work.
^second the impressions re: that director. Funny, I met him when he'd gone back to a law firm after ~1.5 years as a banking associate and was hoping to pick his brain on why he'd come back to law, but never got around to it. It's really odd that he went law --> banking twice in relatively short succession, could support an inference that he wasn't great at associate-level tasks the first time around. The jump to director after only 6 months as an associate at Ducera confirms my anecdotal observation that lawyers making the jump pretty much are forced to do so as ~an MBA associate without regard to how many years they've practiced law (at the front-end of their career), or MD/chairperson level based solely on rolodex much later on, but 'mid'-career switches are tough... he came in at VP/director age, probably had to convince them he could do the work at the associate level before getting the role bump; good for him to negotiate that.
Bump
I talked to an analyst and I had a good experience. I didn’t know the Rx technicals but I’ve stayed in contact. they’re a really small firm with lean teams so everyone is really stressed. They take people based on merit, not school rank so no targets who know the Rx technicals have a solid shot to break into th industry.
gotta say I'm surprised about the work they're doing (not about the interview process as I also had a not so great experience), because when I interviewed they were recently coming off the Monsanto deal and I read on here they were on a bunch of debtor side deals.. I guess things can change quick
Spoke with couple junior folks there and had no issues. The call was very conversational and I enjoyed speaking with them. The situation could be different now..
As a client, I had an experience with a VP that I thought was very unprofessional, at least given the context he was in front of his MDs.
Do tell
Spoke with a VP there, -----, a couple years ago. He was plain rude...He asked me why I wanted to get into restructuring and I said xyz, then he asked me what other banks I'm talking to and I said abcdef, he said, why are you talking to abc if you want to work for us, and why are you talking to def if you want to work in restructuring (def are all great names in the field, so I was like wtf).
Also, interviewed with him. He was an associate when I interviewed idk if that changed in the recent years or so but the entire interview was botched. He took everything I said the wrong way and started berating me on every little thing from the first sentence I said, after having canceled/rescheduled on me multiple times. It was clear he wanted to give me shit, to get himself through the day.
I’ve been in contact recently with a couple of candidates who’ve interviewed in the last twelve months or so (my interview was also within the last twelve months) and they’ve had the same negative experience. I’ve also had a chance to speak with credit guys who’ve crossed paths with them through transactions and they’ve all been fairly negative as well. They’ve gotten a reputation for crushing people’s souls, and I can’t imagine that’s helpful when trying to recruit top talent.
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Also talked with this guy a while back. Holy shit was he a dick. I completely respect the fact that he took time out of his day to speak with me, but he basically berated me on every question I asked and belittled any of the answers I had. I have had hundreds of networking calls and this one, to this day, still stands out as the worst. Not kidding - the worst I have ever had. Guy was so condescending and rude. I wasn’t looking for a job, I was genuinely curious about RX and I walked away from that conversation bitter and discouraged. It’s crazy, I just came across this thread and saw the name and it struck a nerve lol.
Can't speak to their interview process but worked across from these guys a couple times. Had an Associate (maybe even Analyst? idk) basically running a fairly high-profile restructuring deal for them by himself. dude was a little out over his skiis but still absurd experience to get at that age. Heard that's actually a somewhat standard deal setup there. That said, they seem to have been a little quiet on deal flow this year
Just generally though, the restructuring industry is pretty rough vs. M&A, if you have a tough interview and your response is to go whine on WSO you're probably not cut out for it tbh... (same goes for buy-side distressed roles)
undergrad here, why/how is the restructuring industry tougher than M&A??? also, can confirm about associates running deals. had a call a while ago with an associate at Ducera that said some deal teams consisted of a partner and an associate
Nobody’s whining, but if they’ve been shitty to countless people, there’s probably something wrong... gotta get past the whole ‘banking is only for hard core bros’ mentality, and realize that while banking still a decent career path, it’s not what it was 20 years ago.
I think you missed the point. There's like 10 ppl here who've reported the same thing about this company. I spoke to two top recruiters for distress HF/PE who said they've personally spoken to several analysts there trying to jump ship 'due to the work environment.' Imagine how broken they must be to convey that to a recruiter.
The interview wasn't rough in terms of technicals; they were hypothetical creditor and debtor 'here's capital structure/financials and let's do this case study with scenarios.' Very basic if you've done deals and can think critically/strategically as an advisor.
The team there seems abusive and out of touch with reality. My guess is juniors take crap from up top and can't handle it anymore and break, kicking it down to whoever they can.
Mind sharing your experience within RX? Are you currently in RX banking or Consulting? What got you interested in Ducera specifically? Asking because I have a couple first rounds RX Consulting interviews scheduled in the coming week. Thanks
Also have an interview coming up with Ducera. Wanted to know some more of the questions that were asked. Can confirm that an interviewer already rescheduled on me multiple times.
Get ready to be rescheduled an additional 15+ times before getting Kishan on the phone
Seriously, does everybody interview with Kishan? Any tips?
Is this for an Associate role?
No, first year analyst.
How are the interview questions like?
Bump. Is this for NY or LA..?
Bump
Made it to a superday with them. I actually felt like I had a really positive experience. It was definitely an extremely difficult process but they were always quick to get back to me with logistics and next steps. In terms of how the firm treated me as a candidate, I was very impressed. Not doubting the validity of these other posts but certainly did not accord with my experience.
...........
FT analyst, 2020 start and the interviews were back in September
I think if you have no other options, it's still a place you can learn a lot. I got a distinct impression though that at the junior level they hire people that wouldn't be able to get a top-tier rx job elsewhere given how elitist the industry can be (PJT / EVR / LAZ / HL / Moelis (though it's the most accepting)). This is not to knock on the candidates / analysts at all, as I'm sure they work really hard and are pretty smart, but I almost feel bad that they have to work there because they are being taken advantage of due to how tight the prestige banking hiring market is.
Anyone receive an offer from them for SA that could provide some insight into the process in terms of technicals/fit?
Same exact experience as the above
good or bad?
I interviewed for analyst but it was difficult. Mostly trying to test understanding vs typical technical questions.
So more conceptual/situational type questions?
bump
Christ sounds like there's barely a positive experience to be had here
Can we get an update on the legend Kishan Patel? Is he still compensating for his miserable existence by abusing junior people? Sounds like he’s gonna be a great father.
Bump, have an interview with them coming up wondering if anything has changed?
Have a buddy that interviewed. He said it was a fine interaction, nothing like mentioned above. It is totally possible that times have changed or that my friend had a one off.
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