GCA Savvian versus Houlihan versus Moelis?
Can anyone knowledgeable gives insights to the prestige, exit opportunities, and lifestyle at these three shops? All three are for M&A, associate role. Thank you in advance!
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Moelis for prestige and exit opps. Lifestyle is going to suck, but that's banking.
Thank you!!! How would you rank the other two?
HL RX > HL CF > GCA > HL FAS
I've heard good things about GCA, yet also heard exit opps are limited. You'll learn a lot and great responsibility.
Moelis definitely has the stronger brand name among the three. A friend works at Moelis and says they have good deal flow. I don't know too much about GCA. My rankings would be M > HL > GCA.
Yes
I think Savvian is probably better for a "career" banking move but I'm sure it's doable to move to a tech-focused VC / PE shop (definitely no megafunds but that's the same case for HL). They're pretty strong on the tech / ad-tech side (makes sense as they're headquartered in SF), and I've heard that they pay above street but I don't have exact figures. They were on some big deals back in the day too like Dell / Quest.
Moelis would be good in LA (I think sweatshop but stronger dealflow) and I haven't really heard good things about Moelis NYC. Pay is is street I'm pretty sure.
I don't know anything about HL's M&A presence, obviously restructuring is their strong suit. Strong offices would be LA (assuming), Chicago, and Minneapolis. I think the HL name carries good weight but at the end of the day you need deal experience so that you have something to talk about in interviews. Back when I interviewed with them it didn't feel like the corp fin guys were too gung ho about their job, which was vastly different from my experience interviewing with the RX group
Moelis Chicago would be better than HL Chicago.
Last year, GCA definitely did not pay above street (SF office, don't know about NY). In fact, their base is below street. Maybe it was higher a few years ago when they were on bigger deals, but they have slowed down significantly these past couple of years.
In terms of bonuses, Moelis pays the best, followed by Houlihan, then GCA. That is same for prestige and exit ops, and reversed for work/life balance.
Specifically for exit ops, Moelis does well to the usual top tier/MM PE/HF/CorpDev. Houlihan CorpFin did reasonably well too (from the LA office, one went to HBS, one works for Bridgewater, one for Google Ventures (its VC branch). For GCA, exits are usually to other investment banks (one exited to JPM IB, of instance).
Really? My friend interviewed at GCA and an analyst told him first years got 70k bonus... Maybe they lied to him?
He asked about the associate role not analyst. Moelis pay is above street at least as an associate. For comparrison, 100k for most BB's to 140k base for Moelis starting as an Associate 0. I don't know if the pay bumps up again when you become an associate 1 at Moelis, but it still is higher than what an associate 1 at a BB would/should make in terms of base.
The wild card with Moelis is that they are going public soon so I don't know how the culture/pay/etc. will change once ipoed.
I can't speak for the other two firms listed, just wanted to mention what I knew about Moelis.
I've got a close friend at GCA in SF. Miserable work/life balance. Base pay was on part with street and has now increased to 80/90/100 with the recent push to higher comp by the BBs. Their bonuses are above street. Think my friend got 60 or 65k bonus as a first year. Get pretty solid modeling experience. Lots of merger analysis. I'd say they have pretty decent exit ops. I know a few analysts lateraled to BBs, one kid went to amex ventures, I think a few of their associates left for quatalyst and one might have gone to insight ventures as well?
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