Is FIG a death sentence?
Offer from US BB FIG FT(bleh). Didn’t get my top group but understand that beggars can’t be choosers given the economy. I understand that it’s super technical which does appeal to me but I’m a little worried that it’s nicheness would make exiting or moving to other coverage groups quite challenging.
Could anyone share their experiences in FIG IB? Potentially some of the more interesting transactions you’ve worked on, maybe what FIG PE / HFs like J.C. Flowers etc are like?
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This is a small world, should be easy to know who you are so be careful if you dont want to burn bridges from the beggining...
There are some tactic ops exits, solid PE opportunities and corp dev exits each year. HHs will call you for the same opportunities, so its up to you. The team is very well regarded, top fee earner for the bank and top 2-3 during last years in most verticals/main geographies
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FIG in and of itself is not a death sentence, but the factors that led to you not getting any of your top choices definitely are. Think about it - the other groups didn't want you previously when everyone was on equal footing. Why are they likely to want you in a year or two when your experience is arguably less relevant? Similarly, FIG PE shops aren't huge and do not have a ton of spots. J.C. Flowers (if they even have a spot available) is going to want the person who was all in on FIG from day one, not the person who got stuck in FIG because they were at the bottom of their class.
In short, you a right to worry, but you are worrying for the wrong reasons.
You're just starting out your career. Focus on doing your best and improving yourself. Your objective should be to improve from bottom of your class to top of your class - then worry about exits.
Ridiculous post, there are so many factors that go into group placement, the attitude of “other groups didn’t want you,” just shows a low of understanding of the process. At most of the larger banks the group classes are filled by specific schools or connections of the senior people. While I wouldn’t go as far to say there is 0 to do with OP as a candidate, I wouldn’t read into this much at all. Some of the best analysts (both professionally and personally) that I know ended up in lousy groups, and the MS M&A and GS TMTs of the world have some of the most miserable analysts in them that you’ll meet anywhere (from a personality standpoint). This is not speculation, I’ve met many of them. I worked in a strong group at GS/MS and can tell you for a fact that every analyst in our group has a senior connection — ie someone at a VP level or above who was involved in their school recruiting and helped them place in. Getting in without that would have been near impossible.
FIG modeling is different from generalist industries such as healthcare, consumer, industrials, and probably more difficult as well. If you’re in a good FIG group, you’ll have great options in FIG and generalist available to you. That being said, WSO overhypes just how niche FIG is and exactly what that entails. Every MF has a FIG team or does FIG investments, and it’s an incredibly active sector across the various sub sectors. Sure, if you’re in an average FIG group at Citi primarily focused on insurance, you’re probably not going to get hired by Silverlake, but that doesn’t mean there aren’t plenty of other great opportunities that will be available to you.
You must not have seen his original post, pre edit. Anyone posting info to identify themselves, while simultaneously complaining about their group placement and stating that they want to leave is clearly lacking in judgement.
If you don't like FIG, you're going to hate FIG
how are HF exits from FIG
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Would advise editing your post for your banks name (make it generic or make sure it’s not your actual bank)... small world and people talk.
That being said you’d probably still get looks at non fig pe shops from that bank / group but you’d predominantly be targeting fig pe
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Know a few people who left BB Fig groups and went to some sort of coverage groups at decent boutiques. So I guess there is always a way out depending on what you’re willing to compromise on (taking a step down from being at BB or something along that line). From there you could go into PE not related to FIG
I’ve never understood this. If anything FIG modeling is more complex. The idea that you wouldn’t be capable of valuing a traditional ebitda based company seems ridiculous.
Because this forum is an echo-chamber
It's not that niche. Yes there are things about it that are unique, but you could argue that for almost any coverage group. Outside of consumer and industrial who isn't niche? I doubt there's any evidence on exits, etc that would suggest FIG is anything close to a death sentence.
What about REGAL BB groups, is that a death sentence for normal PE?
yup
Fig bankers are the biggest nerds out of all groups in any BB. Prove me wrong.
Hahaha, I don’t think anyone’s disagreeing with you on this particular point
Banks have already started tor recruit for FT 2021? Seems odd....
What kind of HF do you currently work at, and why the transition?
The comment above that got 9 bananas is comical. You're fine dude. Just perform well, build relationships with your seniors, and you'll be able to transition to a great PE gig afterwards.
You're at a BB bank, and you're really going to let some dude on WSO tell you what you can or can not do? Jesus christ...
Not a death sentence at all. Usually FIG works on bigger and more complex deals. They’re more technical and can easily transition to any other group - gaining a feel/ some knowledge of other industries will be the only hurdle. The FIG guys at my bank get hit up by the same recruiters for buyside exits, in addition to a lot of MF FIG specific stuff.
I know someone who went from FIG to real estate
FIG sell-side to FIG buy-side here.
Would advise you explore something else unless you are genuinely nerdy enough to take FIG. Compared to my batch mates during IB, I know A LOT more about insurance companies and banks. My bosses were impressed with my industry understanding during internship.
I thought I would be happy with it FT and I will be acing it but I was wrong. Your exposure to stuff other bankers doing are much less in FIG (which requires you to do extra self-study). You are doing stuff with much more regulations and sophisticated disclosure that you don't want to read them all (despite they are highly regulated, you feel like you are reading different alien languages everyday and you have loads of benchmarking because almost everything is available). Your clients are all in the finance industry and they know finance way more than a typical consumer/industrial client.
Everyone views you are a FIG expert, some will give you a try (but you will have much harder time because you don't work on their cases/models daily). Some will outright think you are their second or third choice. They would rather take a TMT dude over you even they are looking for someone to cover industrials.
FIG is not a really bad choice if you have genuine interest in it and understand it is tougher in terms of knowledge and lifestyle. Everyone wants to leave FIG so basically if you can ace it, you can easily be a star. But if you are not a star, it is difficult to find an outside option and it is difficult to survive within FIG due to the psychological pressure.
Regulations and disclosures combined with sophisticated clients is what makes FIG sweatshops IMO.
At my BB and my buddy's BB FIG tends to be more sweaty compared to other groups. It has to do with the fact that clients can have very specific requests and there is significantly more public data available that could be analyzed.
I agree that if you don't have a real interest in FIG, then FIG should be avoided. A lateral to a different group or bank is easily doable after a year in FIG.
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ohhh noo
Non-HYP, FIG, PubFin, Boutiques, Tier 1> cities, MSF programs, being straight, being white, being asian, back-office internships are all "death sentences" according to people here.
You know what the real death sentence is? A bad attitude and not believing in yourself.
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