RBC M&A - NY I Hear it is Fucked Right Now....
Anyone have any knowledge of RBC M&A right now (NY). I hear that it is absolutely fucked and juniors are getting cranked (20 hours days). My heart goes out to you guys, hopefully there are good exits coming your way.
From my understanding it is a unique situation. They really have been positioning themselves for explosive growth for the past couple years, and have gotten there. Not to mention the increased deal flow, its an aggressive growing bank so I guess they are trying to get everything the can in a unique environment. From what I hear they are short staffed and need bodies.
Is this accurate? sources?
M&A team lacking juniors in the US, they're trying to build it up. Good seniors driving the team, It's just that the historical model was to have seniors in M&A team and drive everything out of sector teams. They're rebalancing to have more resources in M&A given how tight all teams are
Will the coverage groups start getting more M&A action in term of modelling and process?
I was there through the end of 2020, and it sounds like the same story it was then. It's a lot more deal flow than it used to be (for RBC), which is great, but made worse by some very incompetent mid-level folks who don't know how to manage up or down, and make the juniors lives hell. Which causes a neverending cycle of juniors leaving, piling on more work for the people who stayed.
For what it's worth, the senior team are actually knowledgeable and effective in my opinion. The global head is too intense though, and I think it's reflected.
Do you mind if I PM you? I am currently in the process with the M&A team.
I spent three years there (see below). Feel free to PM.
Roommate was an As1 there and just left to the buyside. Can confirm firm-wide shortages, but they hire laterals at the junior levels from banks like (TD, Mizuho, Nomura), which causes problems during ramp-up. Seniors are poached from BBs, but I can see why they would have issues getting good junior talent.
What firm did he jump to if you don't mind me asking? You don't have to give any specifics.
It's an amazing experience - only on live deals (first years on 4-5 at the same time), run every model, and client exposure. But juniors get crushed, most analysts average 100 hour weeks at the minimum.
How cyclical are the long hours? It’s busy season right now so I’m assuming it’s pretty bad, but what about when times are not too busy?
There's no such thing as busy season. It's a lot of deals with sponsors, and they are constantly buying
I heard exits are nonexistent from rbc
Wouldn’t say that’s the case, they’ve had people go to Point72, Pine Island, Brookfield, BX, GIP, HIG. I think it’s a growing brand and will get a re-rate.
P72 and Brookfield are not impressive exits. Pay noticeably less than staying on as an associate
You would have to drag my limp body out the door to get me to join HIG
I spent 3 years in the M&A group in RBC’s New York office and I actually made a WSO account specifically to respond to this post. Full disclosure. But I felt the need to set the record straight here. There’s no denying that banking is a tough job, and being in a product group like RBC M&A is certainly hard work. However, I have a tremendous amount of respect for much of the M&A team there. The group head is a genuinely compassionate person who cares about his team members, and there are a number of others in VP and Director roles who do as well. I’m still in touch with several of my old colleagues and likely will be for many years to come. I left to pursue a buy-side role, but out of personal interest, not out of spite. My time in RBC M&A provided me with a ton of live deal experience, very strong modeling skills, and unmatched client exposure compared to most other junior banking positions. It’s easy to hide behind a screen name and make claims about a group you’ve never worked in, but anyone who feels like they’re on the fence about making a decision, please feel free to reach out to me and we can have a conversation. I’m happy to discuss the good, the bad, and the ugly, but I felt I needed to weigh in here with some nuance.
Thanks a lot for this post, I’ve actually been trying to make a jump to RBC M&A , and this is one of the reasons - it’s also an aggressive growing brand with a lot of opps. I’m in the process right now and actually really want those role over other places I am interviewing with. Mind if I shoot you a PM?
Thanks
Go for it
PM me
Hey - I'm also in the process as well, was wondering if you have heard anything back yet. Lmk if I should PM.
Is this RBC HR account ?
Lol no - I’m sure you can figure out if you do a little LinkedIn snooping.
This post literally reeks of RBC HR, take with a massive grain of salt lmao. It sounds like it was written from a job description
Never in a million years woulda suspected the Canadians of running a sweat shop hahaha I always thought RBC and TD Securities in particular were snoozy little polite lifestyle banks lmao. Stay strong soldiers.
Go ask the folks in industrials. Dogshit hours, dogshit exist, dogshit bonuses, dogshit culture, but they still come to campus info sessions with all the life gone from their eyes and tell us it’s a great place to be with 60hr weeks.
Their bonus numbers in the comp thread this year were strong though. Nobody posted industry group for obvious reasons
This is a genuine question, I’m not trying to be a prick.
A lot of the comments above mention RBC as a growing platform, etc, but I think they’ve lost market share over the past few years?
This is in reference to total IB fees (based on dealogic) but perhaps those above are referencing more discreet metrics.
It really depends on industry, product, and geography, but overall they've been relatively somewhat stagnant over the past decade (in terms of market share and league tables they've continuously been "on the cusp" of BBs over the past decade). It depends on what you consider market share though. A common misconception is that the BBs are a monolithic group of banks that maintain a status above all other banks, but that's really not true and the BB field has separated significantly over the past decade. RBC is now closer to being a "BB" than ever before, but that's only because the gap between DB and UBS (especially DB) and the other BBs has increased significantly as those two banks have lost market share, so in a way RBC is closer to the end of the BB field. However, at the same time, independents + whatever Jefferies is has taken significant market share against all balance sheet banks, so in a way they've leapfrogged RBC, thus making RBC's position relatively stagnant.
I do think RBC's revenue numbers reflect this. In FY-21 RBC's IB division recorded around ~$2.1bn USD of revenues, which is closer to DB ($3.0bn) and UBS ($3.2bn) than ever, but there's still a sizable distance, while you have banks like Jefferies ($4.4bn) and Evercore ($3.2bn) that have completely leapfrogged RBC's growth over the past decade.
So how does what you describe above justify the term “aggressive growing platform”…?
What’s the culture like of corp banking at RBC? Also anyone have any insights on the leadership of RBC corp banking ?
I swear nothing gets the comments flowing hot and heavy on this site like a thread on rbc, pj solomon, and ft partners.
In the process with CS M&A and will interview with RBC M&A in the coming weeks. If I were to get both, any thoughts on preference? I don’t know anyone at RBC M&A so can’t really verify its dealflow and experience. But CS M&A seems to have both the lifestyle and experience.
I’d take CS man
Definitely CS
Have you heard anything back from RBC yet? Had a superday last week, but nothing yet.
Hopefully you took RBC...
yeah, CS wasn't exactly a scion of stability back when even this post was made but based on the helpful advice above, one suspects that dim notions of prestige won the day here lol
Bump. Any updates on how the M&A team has been this year?
I know an analyst who literally doesn’t work weekends somehow. Always able to go out sat and Sunday. No idea what the deal is
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