Getting the most out of working at a Boutique
I've recently started working at a tiny boutique firm with around 5-10 people as a first year analyst. The size of the deals we do is, I would say, particularly small but that does not bother me in the slightest. I interviewed with most of the major IBs in the past year but my interviewing technique was clearly not the best.
Anyway, this post is about how can I can extract the most value from working at a boutique IB. I enjoy the job and the people with whom I work but know that eventually I will need to move on - more so for the sake of being challenged rather than any sort of notion of 'prestige.'
So my questions relate to my time at this boutique firm;
1. If anyone has been in similar circumstances, how did you ensure that you learned the most useful and 'sell-able' aspects of the job in order to lateral into a larger firm?
2. What sort of time-frame for staying in one position is 'acceptable' before moving on?
3. Any other ideas on how to proactively get the most out of this role?
TIA
Carne
Take a look at my lateraling guide.
Get staffed on as many deals (preferably M&A) as possible and try to get involved on all aspects of the deal. If your boutique is mostly like mine was, you will probably spend most of your time creating pitches, teasers, CIMs, managing the data room, and other "softer" aspects of the M&A process. If you get little to no modeling experience, don't worry. Stay late after work and build an operating model, a DCF, comps & precedents, an lbo model, and a merger model with client financials. You might not use those models in real life, but at least you will gain some practice. There is not need to build anything complex (e.g. two tranches of debt for your LBO or some basic assumptions for your merger model).
You will most likely have to stay for six months (the bare minimum) to a year. I found that I got a lot more interviews as I got closer to a year.
Read my lateraling guide and then read it again. Everything you need to know is in there. I highly suggest that part where I talk about applying to a position and then emailing people in that group. Also, use WSO's resume service ($199). I found that help tremendously.
Good luck!
Thanks Sil - appreciate the advice.
Close deals. It's a lot more interesting to talk about a closed deal than one that has "potential".
From ~ a year at a similarly small boutique, now at EB:
To reiterate above, even if your bank isn't heavy on modeling, still try to do as much modeling as possible. You'll likely be able to make a much larger impact on the firm than you may expect going in. There are so many areas that small boutiques can improve relative to larger banks - anything you can do creates solid talking points when trying to lateral.
Try to develop as many soft skills as you can, e.g., walking senior bankers/client through an analysis, formatting, etc. If you can get to a point where you're making significant contributions to client meetings, that shows very well when discussing your experience. This is easier said than done, but if you go in and kill it, it shouldn't be incredibly difficult to quickly gain your seniors trust.
To counter the comment on closing deals, we closed very few deals while I was there, but it hasn't been a problem when discussing transaction experience. I wouldn't sweat it if every deal doesn't come to fruition, as long as you're getting solid experience you'll be fine.
In the process of lateraling right now and it seems like people only want to talk about my experience on closed deals.
I haven't experienced the same thing, but no one has discounted my experience on deals just because they didn't cross the finish line.
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