Barclays Best Groups

I've been a long time reader of WSO and wouldn't have been able to get SA offers if it weren't for the great advice of the posters on these forums so I can't thank you enough for that. I received an SA offer at Barclays (as well as DB and UBS) and wanted to hear people's thoughts on the best groups at the bank, especially for someone interested in working at a hedge fund or AM firm down the road.

The only posts on this topic are from a while ago so was curious whether the best groups (such as P&U) have changed in the past few years

 

All M&A is done within each group so you don't need to worry about going to one that might model or one that doesn't, they all do it in house, which is nice.

As far as strongest groups, their natural resources and power and utilities groups are both regarded as the best or one of the very best on the street. Industrials and healthcare are also decently strong, but a few big healthcare bankers there recently left so that might need to be taken into consideration.

There isn't really a bad group at Barclays experience wise, it probably does not get the level of respect it deserves on these forums. Plus, one of the main reasons Barclays sacked their last CEO Antony Jenkins was because of his disregard for the ibanking division. The board and new CEO have been very clear that they are streamlining their IBD division by placing a lot more emphasis on London and NYC, and are willing to work to build those up. They have also been able to poach a decent amount of dealmakers from MS and GS lately, so all in all I think Barclays is past its biggest worries (unlike DB) and would be a pretty good place to work and any of its groups.

 

Agree with cayo275 about NatRes and P&U probably being their strongest groups. I also believe that their Sponsors group is strong and does some big stuff. And I think FIG is just a step below those couple groups.

Also, I would say you are better off at Barclays than UBS or DB, so I would probably just take that offer. Then I would talk to people and figure out which group you want to shoot for. While group matters for recruiting, etc. it also matters whether you get along with the people in the group...

 

Assuming you are aiming PE exits, in this order:

1.) Nat Res (Houston) 2.) Power & Utilities 3.) Nat Res (NY) 4.) Sponsors 5.) Industrial 6.) Healthcare (not as sure now because 5 bankers recently left to CS) 7.) TMT

Although I'm headed to a more highly regarded bank (GS/MS/JPM), all my friends at Barclays seem to be the only ones that never complain about their work life, group culture - they all seem to love it there.

Directly from an insider - one of my friends who'd recently exited to PE from Barclays told me that arguably the best groups for PE exits from the NY Office is P&U and Sponsors. Take it for what it's worth.

 

The legacy Lehman groups have historically had the best PE placement: NatRes (specifically Houston) and Power were the two heavy hitters. There is no dedicated M&A product group, so analysts in all groups get a good technical skill-set. FIG is also a good group, although it's weaker relative to GS, JPM, Citi, and BAML.

I am permanently behind on PMs, it's not personal.
 

Power and Natural Resources. Also consistently hear good things about Industrials, Sponsors, and Healthcare being strong. Have heard complaints about TMT's culture and have heard positive things about FIG and C&R, but I don't see them cited as "top groups" all the time.

 

Consumer retail is hurting since a big portion of that group got lifted out.

Healthcare is a solid group, but known to be a bit of a sweatshop, so they have had trouble retaining junior resources.

Don't know much about industrials other than that they do a lot with airlines.

Nat res is solid of course. Even the NYC group gets good flow. Lots of activity right now between coal, metals and Petro.

Power and utilities also great group (2ND to nat res?).

 

Nat Res and Power are historically good groups. Not sure about Menlo but TMT in NYC is a solid group as is healthcare (advised on the Thermo Fisher deal last year). Industrials has gotten stronger in recent years - worked on the American Airlines deal last year. However, my understanding is that the group divided into verticals so you run the risk of getting struck in a weaker one.

"This is the business we've chosen"!
 

Don't know too much, but a friend of mine told me a bit about that office. Seems it's a really small office and runs a separate process from other offices. Mostly industrials focused; he didn't seem to have too high an opinion of them.

 

From what I know:

1.) Barclay's LevFin is a capital markets oriented group (basically HY DCM) that does no modeling. Avoid this group if you are planning an exit to PE. Great lifestyle group though from what I've heard.

2.) Barclays' crown jewels are Nat Res and Power & Utilities in terms of PE exists. Keep in mind that the analysts in the aforementioned groups usually end up in upper-MM PE at best (which is not bad at all) but if you are aiming strictly mega funds then you might be better off going to GS/MS or an elite boutique for FT.

3.) Barclays' RX group (called Restructuring and Finance) is one of the few bulge bracket bank groups that comes as close to doing RX advisory as possible without having to go to a restructuring shop (ex. HLHZ, Laz, BX, EVR). This is because they have pulled in several MDs from HLHZ to run the group. Mark Shapiro (the group head) brings in great deal flow to the group as well. Keep in mind that this group is TINY (think like 12 people from group head to analyst) which makes sense since RX is very slow right now. Can't comment on this group's exit opps because there's just so few people there.

This is all from a friend who is currently a 1st year analyst at Barclays so take it with a grain of salt.

 
Best Response
monkeyleverage:

From what I know:

1.) Barclay's LevFin is a capital markets oriented group (basically HY DCM) that does no modeling. Avoid this group if you are planning an exit to PE. Great lifestyle group though from what I've heard.

2.) Barclays' crown jewels are Nat Res and Power & Utilities in terms of PE exists. Keep in mind that the analysts in the aforementioned groups usually end up in upper-MM PE at best (which is not bad at all) but if you are aiming strictly mega funds then you might be better off going to GS/MS or an elite boutique for FT.

3.) Barclays' RX group (called Restructuring and Finance) is one of the few bulge bracket bank groups that comes as close to doing RX advisory as possible without having to go to a restructuring shop (ex. HLHZ, Laz, BX, EVR). This is because they have pulled in several MDs from HLHZ to run the group. Mark Shapiro (the group head) brings in great deal flow to the group as well. Keep in mind that this group is TINY (think like 12 people from group head to analyst) which makes sense since RX is very slow right now. Can't comment on this group's exit opps because there's just so few people there.

This is all from a friend who is currently a 1st year analyst at Barclays so take it with a grain of salt.

After your other stupid-ass thread, I'm going to go ahead and recommend people take this with a pound of salt. This user is a fucking junior in college.
 

HC too specific modelling? From the conversations with recruiters in London at least they seem to prefer industrials / TMT / CoRe

I recently went through choosing a group myself and I found two things to be useful: 1 - talk to someone who USED TO work in your office. They will know what the strongest teams are and will have no reasons to sell you on their team because they already left. 2 - take 10 largest $2bn+ deals in each sector you're considering (harder to do for sponsors) and find out on how many your bank advised. That will give you all the math you need.

Good luck

The way Ah see it, is that it took a revolution f a bihllion people for your darn short to work out!
 
HedgeWhore:

HC too specific modelling? From the conversations with recruiters in London at least they seem to prefer industrials / TMT / CoRe

I recently went through choosing a group myself and I found two things to be useful:
1 - talk to someone who USED TO work in your office. They will know what the strongest teams are and will have no reasons to sell you on their team because they already left.
2 - take 10 largest $2bn+ deals in each sector you're considering (harder to do for sponsors) and find out on how many your bank advised. That will give you all the math you need.

Good luck

Hmm...from what I understand about the NYC group, everyone told me to avoid TMT b.c. of the culture. In terms of Industrials, I've heard very good things about their exit opps as well. Thanks for the two-step advice btw.

But also, the HC people have told me that they were able to recruit both as HC specific and generalist for PE firms. Does that still imply their modeling is too specific?

You crave what you are not. Dude, your perspective on life sucks.
 

Bump. Does anyone have any insight into their FIG group and the overall bank itself? I am looking for some information mostly about the culture / pay / reputation / and perhaps exit opportunities. Could not find anything specific to their FIG group.

 
Jack_U1978:

Bump. Does anyone have any insight into their FIG group and the overall bank itself? I am looking for some information mostly about the culture / pay / reputation / and perhaps exit opportunities. Could not find anything specific to their FIG group.

FIG is pretty dominated by GS/JPM, but if you're looking for placement into PE or something I would google round and look at the associate pages on private equity funds' websites. I remember looking around during my PE recruitment and I think I recall seeing some Barcap FIG kids at pretty solid shops. I have absolutely no clue what their culture is like, however.
 

Sponsors is pretty small group at Barclays and is mostly split between the LA and NY offices (~20 bankers each). I think they only take one or two analysts per year. Unfortunately, I'm not able to comment on the overall strength of the group, although they were on the Dell LBO last year.

 

From what I've heard, ESG does a lot of MM sized deals. A lot of their activity comes from portfolio work for PE funds and companies divesting smaller divisions.I have also heard that they spend a good amount of time executing deals.

 

Itaque dolores ea quasi voluptatibus dignissimos natus et. Sequi sunt odio repellat rem et laborum non.

Minus soluta doloremque accusamus ut. Aut mollitia iste est animi dolores nulla. Ducimus earum qui officiis ut dolore.

Quam aliquid reprehenderit a non magni et. Inventore voluptate facilis qui provident veritatis facilis aliquid. Temporibus officiis explicabo quibusdam ut. Autem voluptatibus hic eos nesciunt dicta eaque nihil. Quaerat qui dolores sed minus. Est aut delectus consectetur aliquam facilis fuga.

"Money is a scoreboard where you can rank how you're doing against other people." -Mark Cuban
 

Perspiciatis hic voluptas possimus animi error asperiores quia modi. Quas unde porro eligendi laudantium similique assumenda qui. Odit magnam dolore eius necessitatibus accusantium repudiandae quaerat. Quam sequi quod dolorem cupiditate sed neque. Accusantium nulla totam soluta natus recusandae. Dolore neque earum voluptatem quia in sit.

Aliquid dignissimos nesciunt doloribus doloremque voluptatum quo in sequi. Tenetur sunt unde aut sed et consequatur fugiat vitae. Itaque illum veritatis quidem.

Et quia perferendis beatae expedita libero eum et. Delectus numquam laboriosam nihil magni voluptates.

 

Quia laboriosam qui ipsa iusto. Vitae possimus quod ipsum repudiandae nulla sequi quidem. Unde veritatis repellendus provident placeat beatae. Ab et fugiat est a perferendis et amet. Inventore et sit sit blanditiis nihil et adipisci. Mollitia consequuntur vero mollitia voluptatem temporibus reiciendis. Accusamus quae repellat ut natus eum voluptatem illo.

Rerum saepe qui sint quidem qui non. Omnis quia in consequuntur odit. Velit eaque sed veritatis quis suscipit beatae ab dignissimos. Pariatur ea et quia dolorem doloribus eum exercitationem. Aut voluptatum facilis est totam voluptatibus commodi. Sit veritatis aut vel unde nobis nesciunt.

 

Rerum et qui dolores tempora laboriosam. Autem quibusdam fugiat rerum at consequatur aperiam. Fugit fugit ut explicabo labore sed similique est nostrum. Blanditiis illo porro qui harum odio voluptatem. Quos culpa ad vero minus veritatis commodi.

Iste quam deleniti quidem architecto animi accusantium. Ut rerum aliquam rerum dolores occaecati voluptas. Animi explicabo tempore enim tempora consequatur. Repudiandae provident dolores ut natus maxime.

Delectus quia voluptas vel praesentium rerum modi recusandae error. Unde incidunt perferendis voluptatem animi. Repellat ducimus enim aut autem perspiciatis exercitationem corporis magnam. Ut veritatis et sint velit itaque. Ullam et et tempore suscipit soluta sit. Officiis nihil assumenda quia accusantium cum.

Career Advancement Opportunities

March 2024 Investment Banking

  • Jefferies & Company 02 99.4%
  • Goldman Sachs 19 98.8%
  • Harris Williams & Co. (++) 98.3%
  • Lazard Freres 02 97.7%
  • JPMorgan Chase 03 97.1%

Overall Employee Satisfaction

March 2024 Investment Banking

  • Harris Williams & Co. 18 99.4%
  • JPMorgan Chase 10 98.8%
  • Lazard Freres 05 98.3%
  • Morgan Stanley 07 97.7%
  • William Blair 03 97.1%

Professional Growth Opportunities

March 2024 Investment Banking

  • Lazard Freres 01 99.4%
  • Jefferies & Company 02 98.8%
  • Goldman Sachs 17 98.3%
  • Moelis & Company 07 97.7%
  • JPMorgan Chase 05 97.1%

Total Avg Compensation

March 2024 Investment Banking

  • Director/MD (5) $648
  • Vice President (19) $385
  • Associates (86) $261
  • 3rd+ Year Analyst (13) $181
  • Intern/Summer Associate (33) $170
  • 2nd Year Analyst (66) $168
  • 1st Year Analyst (202) $159
  • Intern/Summer Analyst (144) $101
notes
16 IB Interviews Notes

“... there’s no excuse to not take advantage of the resources out there available to you. Best value for your $ are the...”

Leaderboard

1
redever's picture
redever
99.2
2
Secyh62's picture
Secyh62
99.0
3
Betsy Massar's picture
Betsy Massar
99.0
4
BankonBanking's picture
BankonBanking
99.0
5
dosk17's picture
dosk17
98.9
6
DrApeman's picture
DrApeman
98.9
7
kanon's picture
kanon
98.9
8
CompBanker's picture
CompBanker
98.9
9
GameTheory's picture
GameTheory
98.9
10
Jamoldo's picture
Jamoldo
98.8
success
From 10 rejections to 1 dream investment banking internship

“... I believe it was the single biggest reason why I ended up with an offer...”