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I'm in the same situation, so I'll start it off.
What's your plan for after banking? How many people in your office? What's the culture like? How rigid is your analyst program in comparison to a BB? Do they expect 2 and out or is it common for people to move up the ladder?
Plan after banking is MBA, hopefully at a top 10 school. Seems like the admissions standards are crazy at the moment.
We have ten people in our office - three managing directors, two associates, three analysts, a PA, and an intern. Culture is tight-knit and pretty loose relative to BB. Valuation is much less emphasized and deal flow is private companies up to $200 MM in revenue, meaning we rarely get financials that are fun to model.
I think we actually expect our analysts to stay 2+, and look at associate hiring potential.
What about you? I'd say my biggest complaint is doing deals with companies no one has ever heard of and having to deal with their shitty accounting.
I just had to go back and look at your old posts to make sure you weren't the analyst in the cube across from me. My office is basically the exact same size, but it's also our firm's biggest office (we have about five other regional offices, each with 2-5 people). Definitely less of a brand name. Our deals tend to be sub $100mm as well, although we have gone higher in the past.
Yesterday we were preparing to go to market on a deal that will probably be in the $35-50mm range. At the 11th hour we had to postpone because there was a major discrepancy in the financials that we couldn't reconcile. These were audited financials that we were working with. Even the CPA's when you get down this far can be incompetent.
Outside of the no name deals, messy accounting and lack of headhunter attention, I literally have no complaints about where I work. My hours are manageable (and I can take a few days off here and there), I'm learning a ton, I get a lot of client contact, and for the most part the people I work with are extremely down to earth.
Man, you must be sitting next to me. Pretty much exact same situation, literally had that situation come up a week or two ago right before going to market.
To both of yall,
For someone interested in this type of work, what are the best ways to break into these regional boutiques? Especially for someone like me who is currently in a non-IB banking position. Cold e-mailing alums? Online postings? Don't really have any other ideas. Thanks
Best way to break in is definitely to cold call VP's or MD's. I'd form a list, in three tiers. Tier 1 you have a solid contact at, Tier 2 you can "break the ice" (you guys competed on a deal I profiled, I know your former xyz, etc. etc.), and Tier 3 are banks you have no relationship with.
Force yourself to call a few banks from each tier every day. Leave a message asking if they are looking to fill any immediate needs at analyst, and give your relevant experience and why you can come in and contribute immediately.
The number one thing is that there is no formal training program in a lot of these boutiques, so you really need to be able to hit the ground running in terms of basic shit like PowerPoint, Excel, etc. You'll learn CapIQ or Factset fairly quickly.
Excellent advice.
I'll second Booger's advice. If you want to post/PM a bit more about your background I might be able to help more. I broke in from a non-IB role a little over 1.5 years after I graduated. I did a Q&A a few months ago that contains some of the details, so I'll direct you there so I can stop hijacking Booger's thread.
What are your working hours compared to BB, can you have a social next to it and do you have weekends? Why did you choose to work in a regional boutique compared to a BB?
Working hours are anywhere from 70-100 hour weeks, with it usually being around 80. We come in on all Sundays and some Saturdays, but I am off by 9-10 every night and on Friday gone at 6.
I chose a regional boutique because the BB I interned with did not give me a full time offer.
Please post, duff, no hijacking is taking place!
What kind of companies do you deal with? MM or blue chips? Do you prefer your regional boutique to a BB?
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