M&A Group at BAML/Citi. Have actually seen work completely die down this past month ever since mid-February when I was pulling close to 100. Wondering how this has been at other BB. OP what type of bank is this?

 

For my group, myself and a few others have gotten 55-65 hour weeks these past two, has that been the case for you recently where there has been a complete slowdown?

 

Are these groups eve bothering trying to replenish their junior team that left with more headcount or just letting you guys suffer?

 

At a west coast EB and it is as bad as I have ever seen it and nobody above gives a shit. We have had first year associates leave, 2nd year analysts completely check out, the most toxic VPs/EDs/MDs be enabled and encouraged to continue their behavior more than ever. Record earnings and bonuses flat for juniors. Don’t worry guys, they are going to have a happy hour on Zoom and that will make up for treating us all like dirt!

Life is too short for the bullshit. Covid has made it clear that finance is simply a toxic place to be. None of the seniors give a shit about you and you will always be expendable until you’re a revenue producing MD. That’s how it is and pretending like it is anything else is a coping mechanism.

 

Based on what you've seen in your group do you believe that banks will just try to keep running with less-than-needed headcount?

 

Who will they hire? The next marginal candidate who had not received an offer is unlikely to be the strongest junior. Then what? We are in for a world of hurt when the 2nd year analysts leave and take their knowledge with them. If many more associates go, you will see the same.

At this point, the people that are sticking around, like me (for now), are too stupid and stubborn to try something new or different.

The fact that compensation was flat in a record year shows that even the promise of being paid well isn’t a guarantee. I can’t speak for all groups, but I know that ours used it as a time to pay themselves handsomely through a massive special dividend and bonuses to MDs and give a big fuck you to every associate. The top and middle bucket were in line with prior years, yet we had a blow out year. Can someone please explain what that means for the future when deal flow eventually subsides? 

 

The above comments hit close to home, many 2nd years just don't care whether they are fired or not at this point. Many of us have buy-side offers lined up and the rest got a good resume.

For college students, look out for groups (mine included) that are continuously hiring for last a few months, it's as real as it gets to indicate which groups have some of the worst time/culture while there are many other groups offer good experience and exits at the same time.

 
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Agreed. Problem is, there are limited seats and it is an industry wide problem. The offices handling it better that also have dealflow can only hire so many analysts and associates. Then a lot of groups, like mine, will make fake efforts to fix it that trick enough interns and some younger analysts/associates to think it is different this time and it isn’t. These places really do not give a damn and I would not be surprised if some of the senior get a sick pleasure out of what they are doing to juniors.

Just as an anecdote, one of my deal teams had a call and the MD, one of the top producers in the firm with an outrageously expensive home, told the analyst and I that while we think we have it bad, we have “no fucking idea” how bad it is for him (this is a verbatim quote) because he and his wife aren’t able to have their friends over, clients want to talk on the phone, he hasn’t gotten to travel like he’s used to, etc. This is a person with an 8 figure home lecturing an analyst and an associate about how rough it is and not a single senior banker or HR or management has the fortitude to say a single word about the behavior.

 

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