Any insight into Moelis IB in Beijing?

I just got an interview with Moelis IB in Beijing, but have no idea what to expect/what Moelis' reputation is in Beijing. Can anyone provide any insights? Thanks so much!

 
Controversial

Sounds awesome. The highest performing elite boutique bank in one of the largest world economies and a chance for the office to grow significantly.

From someone who actually lived and worked in China, the CCP affects you 0% in your daily life, just get a VPN. Have a blast in Beijing, OP.

Be excellent to each other, and party on, dudes.
 
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Whatever, dude. I had a great time working in China... and I was also very happy to leave when it came to that point. There are a lot of huge problems with the government, none of which impacted my career or daily life. People are awesome there and I made a lot of good friends.

You want the negative things about China to prove I'm not a "shill?" Tons of poverty (people camping outside of hospitals thousands of miles away from their home). A lot of pollution, especially air pollution. (I wore an N95 mask daily on my walk to work so it's pretty fucking comical how Karens back here in the USA claim they "can't breathe" wearing cloth masks). Had to boil water every day to drink or brush my teeth because tap water is not potable. Questionable food quality at a lot of places. Almost getting run over whenever I crossed the street regardless of whether the light was green. This stuff drove me insane about living there which is why I moved back to the US to raise my kids.

Spoiler alert -- all of those negative things above would have been the same complaints had I lived in India instead of China. The biggest challenges facing these countries is their poverty and inequality. India being a democracy doesn't solve all of their problems. Is it better to have a democracy? Yes. Is China's political system garbage? Yes. Does it impact you if you're an investment banking Analyst in Beijing? No, not at all. Just being honest.

MS me all you want, have you ever set foot in the country? It's hilarious you think my personal experience is propaganda and your completely uninformed take with no nuance whatsoever is gospel.

Be excellent to each other, and party on, dudes.
 

As a non-religious American white guy who doesn’t really care about politics when we aren’t in an election year, living in China for 6 months was a good time 4 years ago when I did it. The CCP didn’t have a visible footprint in day-to-day life other than through very obvious propaganda posters in malls, public facilities, and roadways. But as someone who didn’t understand the nuances of the Chinese language, those didn’t affect me at all other than striking me as very obvious propaganda. Chinese news was also interesting to see as it appeared much more focused on China-Russia relations than China-US relations. Rarely did my Chinese acquaintances discuss politics, but that was fine because there are literally so many other things to discuss in the world.

Using a VPN wasn’t much of a hassle when I wanted to connect with people back home, but what’s the point of living in China if you’re going to pretend you’re in the west anyway. Chinese young professionals are all on WeChat and Weibo anyway, so the only time I used my VPN was when catching up with people back home.

Things do appear to be getting worse for foreigners since I spent a semester there 4 years ago, though. But that’s only based on what I’ve seen in western media and from reddit, I suppose. Reality is typically much more nuanced and all my US friends were pretty surprised by how different my experience in China was from what we hear about in western media.

Not trying to shill, just sharing my personal experience. While the CCP didn’t have a huge impact on my experience, cultural differences are certainly a big shock initially.

 

It does affect your life if you:

  1. Are religious and attend church services (my denomination has been forbidden by the ccp to build churches in China)

  2. Like to speak your mind about political issues without filtering oneself over fear of arrest

  3. Don't want to arbitrarily spend money on a VPN because the ccp bans Google and Facebook(which is absolutely pathetic)

  4. Like to watch local news that engages in debate and criticism of the government

  5. Want to watch movies in theaters that aren't edited by the government

I guess you are right. Doesn't affect my life at all.

 

Says someone whose country is ruled by the 1% corporation lobbyists ... I am not saying democracy is not a great thing but the one in the US is a total failure .. Oh and you guys bomb the Middle East for fun I forgot

 

speaking as a north american citizen who was actually in shenzhen for a decent bit (first time in china, no chinese etc.), it was actually quite nice day to day. things like the ccp censorship literally had zero affect on my life day to day as i don't watch TV (because i dont understand chinese) and I use a VPN the entire time. plus, the food is fantastic.

 

Amazing, they went ahead and created an actual sweatshop

 

EB spots are still sought-after because:

1. You get global pay/are paid really well compared to most other Chinese bankers even compared to CICC, the top 1 bank in China (CICC trumps even GS and MS from a deal flow perspective and pay doesn't lag that much)

2. You get looked at by all the PE funds. Most deals in China are IPOs and IPO bankers don't usually get looked at by PEs unless it's BB. BB spots are fewer in China/HK compared to the U.S.

 
BadDealFlow12:
Sad that standing up to an oppressive regime that doesn't support free speech or religion is now a Republican stance.

Actually tho. Look at all the social democracies with arbitrary “hate speech” and “dignity speech” laws.

 

I've worked in a boutique in Beijing before and it was the best time of my life! It was actually my first ever IB internship done in my first year of uni, and I walked away from that convinced that I wanted to do finance as a career.

I can't speak for MoCo, but boutiques in Beijing definitely have it tough because of the business model and the fact that no one wants to pay for advice, though that's not exactly something you can control.

Beijing itself I think is pretty magical. Food is amazing, people are crazy friendly (and I'm a foreigner lol, though I am native level fluent in Chinese), and given I love history, there's so much to do. One thing which I found really different is the team culture. Every single meal, the analysts, interns, and associates would grab their waimai and sit in the pantry together. We'd play brainteasers as we eat, while the Associates tell us about their relationship troubles. On several occasions, we'd just order an entire hotpot into the building. It was so like a family that you called everybody 哥 or 姐, and once you were accepted into the family everybody actually protected you. Even the cleaning lady treated me like a grandson, continuously making coffee and cutting fruits and slapping my back to ask me to correct my posture. Also there's an office chauffeur which is pretty interesting.

VPNs weren't an issue while I was there, but might have changed since. As for oppression... I was pretty vocal on my anti-CCP stance. I'm actually very pro-ROC, and would love to see Republican rule restored to China (not with the current slate of Taiwanese politicians though). I was more than able to have these discussions in the office and even in public, hell the moment I landed, the office chauffeur immediately launched into a grant criticism of the purge of the conservative faction of the CCP going on at the time. I'd say my quality of life was about twice as good as what I have now in London, though the quality of work is nowhere near.

 

I'm not a Chinese national, but I am Chinese. Quality isn't great primarily because of a lack of financial sophistication... i.e. companies don't care about valuation, synergies, or any of the analysis. You're hired to get the deal done at any price. Sometimes you even get seconded to the clients office as some kind of ersatz accountant.

 

Knew someone from my school that worked at another EB in Beijing for the Summer.

Heard it was pretty chill but limited deal flow. The EB had a small office that didn't do much. Mostly coverage work and pitches. Most of the execution was handled in other offices.

Pay comparatively lower than other major cities since it is adjusted for cost of living.

 

MoCo used to pay the highest in BJ (2-3 years ago when my friend was there). Base for 1st yr analyst was pushing towards upper end of RMB600k.

Not sure if it is still true though.

 

some of it is genuine (though not in the fullest sense of the word) - I'm continually surprised at how many chinese (whether from the mainland / living in other parts of Asia) living abroad will still stick to the party propoganda, but unfortunately is very much a function of being in the echo chamber that is WeChat / other chinese social media / the environment where they grew up

It does get a bit repetitive - any article on the FT re China is plagued by pro-CCP commentary in at least 50% of the comments section, with much of the same whataboutism / "America does this as well why don't you condemn" / "China is peaceful and prosperous and anything else is a lie"

Even the Russians weren't this thorough - credit where credit's due I guess.

 

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