Livingston Securities

It's basically a bunch of guys trying to capitalize on the ibanking rush with no experience and they got in at the wrong time of the market. I worked there for a little bit. Feel free to PM me with any questions. FTPiper is right, you can spin it, but it's not easy and your time would be better spent elsewhere.

Can anyone expand on this and tell me how an internship here may help me get my foot in the door for S&T?

I know a friend who worked here, I'll ask him and i'll PM you the answer.

Thanks!

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Right, right. I searched for any evidence of deals done on their site and on google and found nothing. I'm def not going to pay out of pocket to live to move to NY for a month to work for a firm that's not going to help me get in.

I'm not sure I understand-- WHY would anyone work Full-Time for free? Am I missing something?

Vandal, I PM'd you.

They have no deal flow. There is no training. They don't have their own internet and steal it from a building neighbor. Their "office" is a back cubicle in a shared office floor. The "head of M&A and director of investments" shares a room with 10 interns (he also eats microwave lasagna for lunch). Said room is windowless and has no ventilation or cooling systems. They ask interns to bring their own computers and pay for everything. The full-time employees are unpaid. The investment banking or equity research work you will supposedly be doing doesn't exist. Investment banking interns spent their time researching financial advisors and creating spreadsheets of phone numbers. Equity research interns were forced to play badminton. Do the math...

The place sounds pretty bad. It doesn't seem that any of their "executives" have worked in any highly respected departments at other firms. As a result, I think future employers will not be all that wowed with the bullet points on your resume.

What's it cost to live in NYC for the summer? 6k min, right? Take the 6k, put it into a personal acct. and put your money where your mouth is. I guarantee you will have plenty to talk about come fall interviews, and the banks will probably respect you more for that than for working at Livingston.

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this is pretty cool...

you spend a lot of time google searching yourself?

Why does your FINRA registration say that you are still employed by some spare B/D called Axiom Capital (concurrently with your entity). Further, why does it note at the bottom of your registration:

"Since October 2006, Mr. Livingston has been the Chief Executive Officer and Managing Member of The Livingston Group of Companies, L.L.C. located at 171 Harbor Road, Sands Point, New York 11050. This entity is an investment related holding company. Mr. Livingston currently intends to devote approximately 10 to 15 hours per month to this entity (approximately 5 hours of which may be during trading hours)."

Perhaps there is an explanation for that disclosure. I would be interested to hear it. While it is true that many members of this site are quite young and/or desperate for work, that doesn't mean they need to find themselves at the next Stratton Oakmont.

Livingston Securities is your typical startup investment bank. It has a very entrepreneurial setting, therefore you do not have someone constantly micro-managing you. If you diligently do your work and personally invest in on-the-job learning, you will get a lot out of this job. The environment is such that if management sees that you can handle more responsibility, they will give it to you. The company employs very intelligent personnel (including many that attend top-tier universities) and everyone has a lot to learn from one another.

chimp post 1.

I would kill myself if I was working there and my Bss/MDwould post in a student-forum justifying himself.

so I also worked at Livingston.. same year as Vandal88K and don't believe anything they say about full-time offers with competitive pay.. or pretty much anything else they promise since it won't pan out

the only good thing with livingston is that it's at least a bank and if you have no other options at all (and i do mean NO other options) this is probably better than spending your summer chilling on the front porch ... it won't help at all if you want to do S&T though... although my summer sucked and the firm didn't teach me anything I didn't already know... working with the associates who have some work experience was a little helpful... especially for those without finance background.. also... you actually spend the time to sit down and read up about the industry

nevertheless... it's not like you can't learn all this stuff on your own anyway (since we were pretty much on our own with no training and no direction) but it gives you a talking point for interviews and a context to display the skills

but they have at least one legit person - Mostafa Analoui (potentially spelled wrong) who worked at Pfizer.. but pretty much nobody else ... and don't believe at all that they'll help you start your career or place you at banks

the only reason livingston can claim that interns who leave them get into good firms is because the people they "hire" are lured there under false pretenses and who were just unlucky or too junior (sophomores and freshmen) during the financial crisis to get an offer at the big banks for which they are qualified to work

so it's really up to you... if you don't have anything else better to do and have some money to burn/live in nyc... then you might as well.. the hours are extremely lax and you can do a lot of your own stuff during the time as well

but yea.. the interns there are all overqualified so you might learn something from each other..

Can anyone tell me more about the work of their equity research department? I have had an interview with the equity research director. He looks like a brilliant guy but the whole interview process looks so weird to me. But I was told he likes to ask interns to do work unrelated to the equity research.

Damn... This is the most entertaining post I have ever read on WSO...

To be fair, they do list some deals now, through you can probably judge the quality/type of deals for yourself:

http://www.livingstonsecurities.com/transactions.php

totally agree

Anybody have anything new on this company? Thanks.