What separates JPM from other BBs?

I get that a firm’s CuLtUrE makes it unique but what about JPM gives it an edge relative to other BB?

For reference, GS industry group analysts are exposed to both coverage as well as IB products -namely M&A, debt and equity issuances, etc. I believe that GS is the only bank that does this.

What makes JPM special? What is the company’s (and particularly IBD’s) edge?

Region
 

There functionally isn't a difference in the products, services, and offerings that JPM provides from any other bulge bracket bank-a lot of that sort of stuff has been commoditized like syndicating a TLB (unless you really misprice something or are bad at reading the docs.) Instead look at their teams and the deals they've lead on. JPM LF is excellent (though you don't do a lot of modeling in that team) since JPM has a gigantic balance sheet, HC is great as well, and M&C is good. 

 

I never understand these sorts of questions.  You interview, ask questions, form opinions get offers and accept the one where you felt best aligned.  These firms are all the same at the end of the day. They are all stepping stones for 92% of everyone here.

 
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Below are a couple of observations from the past recruiting season, split in two buckets.

Things you can't say on the interview:

1. Every single person I talked to was trash talking their company, team, and was totally miserable (we know it's mostly the same across all banks, but at least elsewhere people who were involved in recruiting pretended that everything was peachy instead of projecting misery and despair onto potential interns)

2. They were actively joking about the fact that they only have one protected weekend per quarter (and even that one usually blows up)

3. They are super old-school, seniors want face time and people in the office, very hierarchical and traditional

4. They hire considerably more summer interns than required, so it's basically backstabbing and hunger games from day one because people are fighting for a limited amount of spots - great for culture, collaboration etc.

5. They are frustrated that they mostly get called in for their balance sheet, so a lot of what they do is debt financing. ECM pretty bad too

6. Old stuffy NY office (new building looks rad tho)

Things you can say on the interview:

1. Strong in HC, arguably their best group

2. They outsource M&A so if you're coverage you can focus on the industry and clients, if you're product, you can focus on the product

3. Strong balance sheet so you get to experience all products not just ECM or M&A advisory (although, not really - see above)

4. I tried my best to find another pro but there really is none.

 

I would say some of this is true but a lot is inaccurate. For one, not every coverage group at JPM outsources M&A deals to product and usually if they do it's only certain deals not all. Also in terms of over hiring summer interns, it’s very group dependent. There are many groups that will take 90-100% of their summer analyst class for full time. Usually if you are cut it’s for a good reason not because there wasn’t headcount.

 

Nothing I said is inaccurate, you just decided to dive into semantics in an effort to find exceptions to my very high-level observations. Yes, many things are group-dependent, that's a given for just about any bank, but the fact remains that: (1) JPM has a fully fledged (and respected for that matter) M&A group that does most of the heavy lifting - similar to that at MS and BofA, and unlike, say, GS where M&A is only called in for special situations. (2) JPM does heavily overhire, unlike most other banks that have stopped doing so, or at least significantly scaled down. Sure, there are groups that probably don't do it (likely smaller ones that only take a couple of people anyway), but I'd be curious to know what you consider as "many" because all the big ones I spoke with still do.

 

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