I'm interviewing at Piper Jaffray for Diversified Industrials and Services Investment Banking, can someone shed some light on how the interview process is like? Anything about this group at Piper Jaffray will also be helpful.
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If you want to work at Piper, you need to let them know that you have absolutely zero respect for yourself and you don't mind being abused by your MD's. Don't wear a suit, wear a gimp outfit.
Seriously, the place is a sweatshop. Stay far away unless it is your only opportunity. You will not be happy there, all of my friends who were at Piper jumped after less than a year.
We had a gentleman interview with my bank that was rushing to leave Piper - he indicated the culture was toxic.
I interviewed with them during MBA Associate recruiting a few years back. Super day consisted of four 2 on 1 interviews with VP and MD's. In my opinion it was one of the least technical interviews I had. Mostly personality based with a few easy technicals. Alot of focus around why Minneapolis if you are not from the area.
Also interviewed with their tech group and that included a short case study and was slightly more technical fwiw.
FYI if this is Minneapolis, that's one of the worst groups for work life balance at the firm.
True, this group had the worst work life balance at Piper for a while. I interned in the group this summer and have stayed in touch with many of the guys. The work life balance has gotten much better, somewhat due to the "Sweatier Than Ever" post. Additionally, the group grew considerably with summer hires and the deal flow has slowed slightly.
In MPLS? I'd stay far away. As others have mentioned, it's a sweatshop. Have a friend there now and he's miserable. Decent pay, but works 7 days a week doing mundane tasks. Far better shops in the Minneapolis area. Check out Marquette, castlelake, Columbia(amp), lakestreet, craig-hallum.
This is wrong. Most of those places you mentioned will not get you any recognition. Mentioning Craig Hallum for example is laughable when their entire M&A team left to merge w/ Quetico and form Hennepin.
Places worth being at will be the ones you recognize: Houlihan, Lazard MM, BMO, etc.
If you’re talking about work life balance that’s a different story, but as shitty as it can be to work at Piper, it’s still an established and recognized MM shop and will get you better looks and exits than the names you listed.
Switch out BMO with HW and you are dead on. BMO is in disarray post-acquisition. They tried to go up market ($250mm floor) and failed miserably. Now they are saying they cover the LMM like they used to.
LOL, wut? As Nuclear pointed out, you are terribly ignorant on banking in the TC. Castlelake is a distressed credit shop and OP hasn't indicated he is qualified for that gig.
Marquette is dead. WTF is Columbia? Lake Street is a shitty small capital markets shop. Ditto for Craig Hallum. Once the team split to form Hennepin, there are like two bankers left and one of them was an associate that they promoted far too early b/c they needed someone with a reasonable title to pitch whatever businesses that they haven't a prayer of repping on the sell side.
Spot on - HW def merits being on the list of places that matter in Minneapolis. Add'l color you added is all accurate. To elaborate on Craig Hallum, heard a VP basically got pushed out there a couple months before the split and they hired him back as an MD, haha (I think this is true, didn't personally confirm).
To add even more detail - at Piper I interviewed people who interned at one of the previous places trying to make the move after getting an offer all the time or laterals trying to make the jump. Don't know anyone who got an offer at Piper / Houlihan / etc. leave to go to fucking Marquette or Lake Street lol.
Lol wut? You clearly aren’t from/informed of the Minneapolis shops. I’m not going to put forth effort in explaining to you the cons of piper. Plenty of other forums on here that provide details.
I was in Minneapolis for 3+ years and went to college there. I worked at Piper and know numerous people at the reputable firms in addition to many who are at or were from the less well known ones.
Yes, work life balance blows there and you’ll get unnecessarily crushed, but to say you’d rather go to the shops you listed and not even mention anybody actually legit is hilarious. Exits are going to be better at Piper than Lake Street and the like. Period. Surprised you don’t think of like fucking Bayview Capital as a good shop given the inaccuracies you’re spewing out here.
Listen Mr. Ameriprise, I know you think you know what happens in IB, but it is clear you haven't a clue. Nowhere in my post did I commend Piper, but if you think some of those dog shit shops that you recommend your neighbor to for micro-cap follow-on offerings are legit firms, then you might as well join Primerica.
Some people are legitimately coming on here for advice and you aren't doing them any favors by providing misinformed fallacies that could cause them to make a poor decision.
Umm... what? None of these shops are reputable in any way. Lazard MM would be my top choice for Minneapolis, seeing as they are based there. Also HL and a few others that are way better than the ones you listed.
Have you seen that entire long thread on how shitty piper is? From MD swearing at your on a daily basis and firing analysts one week before bonus is distributed You should take a look
I have a offer at Baml for wholesale credit. I have seen other analyst on the team get offers to lev fin and some coverage teams. The job that I'm interviewing for at PJC is in Minneapolis. I don't mind working a lot given that I went to a non target school, therefore I want to learn as much as I can. I also got a deferred offer for top 15 B school already. If things don't work out for me after two years, I can always fall back on B school. I mainly want to know about the interview process, so I can nail it on the interview. For example, how technical is this team? Is there anything I should know besides from DCF and LBOs? Lastly, in regards to it being a sweatshop, is it a lot of work or do they not pay you for the work?
pm'd you
I think any branded IB is better than any other non-IB role at a bank. So if you can get Piper I'd go for that.
Spoke with many guys at Piper. Much less focus on technicals and have heard it’s a very laid back process.
what is the culture like? Despite being a sweatshop how strong are the deal flow? And, is there steep learning curve?
Culture has already been addressed in this thread and others (Piper Sweatier than Ever). Deal flow is good, but not great. They'll get plenty of opportunities to pitch and you'll have several active deals at any moment, hopefully closing a few per year. One of the mid-level guys I know is a solid guy, but no idea if he grinds his lowers.
Overall, not a bad place to be and learn M&A, if you are willing to work hard.
Thank you so much. Do you know how is pay? The number that I'm hearing is 10k signing, 85k base and 20-40k bonus as first year. Isn't that the same as BB?
BUMP
Isnt this the place that doesn't allow electronic copies of CIMs/teasers? If I remember correctly, you have to bind and send out hard copies, to everyone, every time.
That's one MD (another office IIRC) that is just being a douche.
Correct - just 1 MD.
Is this for the first round? If yes how did they let you know which group you'll be interviewing with?
Off cycle is my guess. Normal on cycle is the general pool where you get placed after.
They tell you.
It was for on cycle. I will be starting with the rest of the analyst in Jun 2019, if I get a offer.
It is off cycle because this is not the normal recruiting timeline. Piper only has group-specific interviews for what I'm referring to as off cycle where start date is irrelevant. They are probably interviewing now because people either reneged on their offers, people quit, they underhired, or deal flow picked up significantly.
How do these firms view hiring out of smaller shops in MPLS. Say a first year Associate trying to make a lateral move. Does the small shop stigma give the candidate a black eye or do peripherals play the same (CFA, MBA, Deal reps)?
Sorry if this is better asked in another forum but have been interested in Piper for a while.
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