sdev84 wrote:
Thanks Moss!
Couple questions:
If I have a strong location preference (SF), how and when does that become of a part of the process?
I know they usually ask you during the firm-wide presentation for what your regional preferences are. I believe most people meet with and attend events put on by the NYC office, and then at some point during the process a bunch of students took a trip out to the WC to meet with the banks out there (LA/MP/SF). It was actually a cool trip b/c
everyone doing WC recruiting went out there, not just bankers, so it was a solid group.
At that point, I know for interviews some actually flew out to NYC to interview us, some guys flew out there to meet with the banks for interviews, some did phone for 1st round and in person for 2nd round -- it kinda depends.
That said, even from an East Coast school, there were plenty of guys & gals doing WC recruiting and I'm pretty sure they all did very well.
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Are the recruiting processes for niche areas in banking such as restructuring and public finance completely separate from the normal IBD recruiting process?
Recruiting for restructuring or public finance are a bit different, but in different ways. Basically most of the main restructuring groups are in the big boutique investment banks like Blackstone, Houlihan Lokey, Lazard, etc, because of the conflicts of interest that bulge bracket banks have in a bankruptcy (ie, they almost always would have the debt on their books unlike the boutiques who don't have big balance sheets). So to the extent its different, it would just be the set of firms you target. Beyond that, it would just be viewed as another industry/product group that you've expressed interest in, which isn't unlike someone saying they want to focus on a specific group such as healthcare, retail, M&A, etc.
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Have you seen any shift in sentiment as far as students looking at private boutique investment banks versus public bulge bracket backs as of late?
Its difficult for me to see changes over time, because I've just had 1 year of experience looking at the recruiting process from such a close level, but I will say the level of interest in BBs was far greater than that of the big boutiques, and nobody really seemed to change their mind over the process. The boutiques have kind of a unique culture and often attract a particular type of candidate looking for something unique, so I don't think that changes in the industry or a ruling like Del Monte is going to really change that.
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If you received multiple offers, what were three factors that drove your final decision?
I wanted to work for a bank that a) let me work on big, important, newsmaking, exciting deals, b) had either a group I fit in really well with or the opportunity to rotate through a few groups to find my best fit, and c) a culture that I connected with. I know that I and most others spent a lot of time thinking about which banks I liked more than others, but generally kept my mind open and had mental "tiers" of banks, knowing I very well may not have had the opportunity to choose between banks in a given tier because of how competitive the recruiting process was. That said, if you have a top choice, I would vocalize that to a bank, because they generally want to only give offers to people who are going to accept them. Its like asking someone out on a date -- you want to find out if they'll say "yes" before you ask them, creating this weird song-and-dance routine as each partner tries not to get turned down.
For some, by the time they had their choices narrowed down for second round interviews (ie, maybe some banks you were undecided between cut you), they had a clear first choice and were able to confidently accept on the phone right then and there. Others had a more difficult choice on their hands. Most people accepted within a week of getting their offers, typically after sell days, illustrating to me that generally people knew what they wanted.
Banks talk a lot about "culture" and having a good "fit" with the firm, that initially I thought was a lot of BS. I mean c'mon, like you're going to go work for Joe's Bronx Buyout Shop over Goldman just because you fit in well with their culture? C'mon man! Yeah right. Besides, I thought, everyone on the recruiting team is almost always people from your school, so they naturally have a similar culture to you from the get-go.
That said, I really did find cultures that I just didn't connect with and some that I knew I could really fit in well with and thrive. For the particular firm I joined, I was friends with everyone else they took and even did interview prep with all of them -- a stunning and revealing fact considering that I only did interview prep with a handful of people. This showed me that the reason I was friends with these people and associated with them was the same reason the firm I'll be working at liked these people -- we had a shared culture. So as much as it seems like BS fluff, I think the process of doing lots of informationals and having a ton of touch points really does allow you to get to know the people and see where you fit best with.