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I'm currently a first year analyst in an industry group at one of the bulge bracket banks, so I can pitch in and answer some questions if needed. I work mostly on m&a stuff so my knowledge of capital markets is limited aside from memos. I did 2 Internships in IBD of other banks as well. I'd recommend adding http://www.mergersandinquisitions.com and wallstreetoasis to the list. WSO can be full of poo poo but occasionally it has some useful bits. Since my start as full time I've become rather disillusioned with the job, so my perspective is probably very biased, but I understand some people actually do end up enjoying banking (and of course the allure of going to the buyside...) My hours are ~90-100 average, and my group's culture is such that going home before 9 is pretty much a cardinal sin.
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Jan 27, 2011 00:30
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Thoogsby posted:Links added to OP. London School of Economics. It's a place where they basically groom you for finance. I'd guess easily around 20-30% of all graduates end up in banking. I don't work at GS or one of the what people would call the  top BB's. For what it's worth, I would probably go back to a boutique if I had the chance now. One of my internships was at a boutique and it was much better in terms of life style/treatment from senior guys.Admirable Gusto posted:I'm a second-year analyst; went through PE recruiting last year and will be officially moving to the buyside as of July this year (can't wait) Do you mind sharing your experience? I'm going through it now, but I find it difficult to be motivated since PE seems like Banking Redux (at least the megafunds).
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Jan 27, 2011 15:00
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Thoogsby posted:I'm planning on taking classes at LSE this summer for about 9 weeks. I'm really looking forward to it. You'll have a blast. The location is amazing and if you haven't been to London before, it's quite an experience. Get ready for a lot of self-study though, LSE's teaching is awful. The career services center is pretty useless, but some banks/consultancies hold summer info sessions that you really should attend if you get a chance. I'd rather not reveal where I worked as it's small enough that it would be too easy to track me down, but it was a fairly typical small/start-up advisory place. Most of the partners are German dudes who may or may not be raging drunk by noon time. I would really recommend anyone interested in the day-to-day life of an advisory banker to read Mergers and Inquisitions, it has multiple articles walking you through the best/worst days of an average analyst. Not sure if anyone's interested, but I recruited for both US and UK positions (currently in NYC) so I can offer whatever bits I know on both sides. My year had a few Americans who made it to Wall Street, but only 2 other who got BB offers that I know of. Unfortunately, the difficulty of getting a Visa pretty much precludes most non-Americans from coming to work here.
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Jan 28, 2011 03:41
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Admirable Gusto posted:megafund! Can't thank you enough! What you say definitely matches what I've learned and come to expect. Although I understand it's better in that it's less process-oriented work (i.e. following instructions to a T and robotically churn out models/books), I feel it still has tons of bullshit work - internal items, making extremely minute changes to models, aligning bullet points... Thoogsby posted:I've never been to London, or Europe for that matter. I have a few friends who did this same summer program though so I've been briefed on the amount of work it requires. But I'll be going right from an internship so the culture shock of long hours shouldn't be too bad. When you arrive try to arrive on a weekday, and make sure it's not a bank holiday monday. Otherwise 90% of shops will be closed and you will end up having your first London meal at a McDonalds.  I don't know anything about Piper Jaffray in London, but I had a friend who interned in HLHZ restructuring. He had ~half of his weekends free, for what it's worth, and he said full-time analysts have about the same. The workload isn't soul-crushing, but their restructuring team is pretty intense in terms of getting things done right very quickly. If you have any sort of connection, however, definitely squeeze it whatever it's worth.
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Jan 28, 2011 15:05
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Thoogsby posted:Do you recall what type of (if any) recruiting seminars were held in the summer at LSE? I'll hopefully be there from the beginning of July through the middle of August and I really want to capitalize on my time there. There aren't any (as far as I know) that are held at LSE, but many firms hold sessions on-site. I believe Bain (consulting), Morgan Stanley, and Barclays did it last year. You may have to bugger the career services centre to find out some of them, but I don't know what kind of resources are available for summer students. Some of banks actually post the events on their website and you can just register online. If you want to actually land a job, the best way is just try to make as many friends as possible and use good ol' networking and asking around. But it won't be easy as you do not attend a UK school full time and some employers might shrug you off. To be frank - unless you have some overwhelming desire to jump ship to a different firm/job in London, just enjoy your time there. Opportunities are still greater and better (as far as my very limited knowledge tells me) in the U.S. I originally brought up those sessions because I think they're a good way to meet like-minded people and learn more about other types of jobs.
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Feb 2, 2011 03:22
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Its Miller Time posted:So the consensus is that Forbes' estimates of private companies earnings are not accurate or realistic because of these difficulties? I'm not looking at the long-term value of a team, I'm asking how close you can to estimating a team/any private companies' EBITDA/profit for any given year. I know absolutely nothing about owning a sports team, but I would guess that estimating depreciation doesn't matter because I can't imagine what a sports team might have that actually incurs material depreciation cost. (Unless they own a stadium?) I'd imagine most cost they incur are expensed rather than capitalised. For amortisation, taking a wild stab in the dark, you can estimate the value of the team's brand/intangible assets (maybe through precedent transactions when teams have been bought/sold) and go from there. Another possibility is, as you said, that they calculated EBITDA from top down. That makes the most sense - you can definitely estimate the revenues (deal contracts/merchandise) and the costs (probably mostly salaries?) to a reasonable degree. Socialism fucked around with this message at 04:03 on Mar 25, 2011 |
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Mar 25, 2011 04:00
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Piduloom posted:The value of the equipment they own would be fairly material though, right? Don't some teams own their own airplanes? I don't think they fly commercial. And they probably own the training facilities. Do they depreciate the equipment? I thought they just buy new ones pretty often and expense them. I'd imagine that most teams rent or hire private planes. No clue about training facilities, but land doesn't depreciate and it probably constitute a large portion of their property value. I could be waaaay off though. Goodwill is not amortised.
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Mar 26, 2011 23:19
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The Capitulator posted:But is tested for impairment! It'll be difficult if not impossible to estimate one-off charges like that without actual data released by the firms. If we are given EBIT or operating income then we just have to hope that they correctly exclude impairment and other one off expenses. Otherwise we'd have to take in account of other items like hiring/losing players, which I would guess to occur far more frequently and has a larger impact on the bottom line than goodwill impairment. v  v
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Mar 27, 2011 18:53
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The Capitulator posted:Nice. Just out of curiosity, how frequent/rare do you see guys at 'associate' level without an MBA? Pretty common, around 40-60% at my bank depending on the group. Some are exceptions. Lev fin for example would have almost 0 since everyone at the analyst level leaves for PE, but the industrials group has mostly direct promotes (non-MBAs) because fewer analysts leave. It's never really about how "hard" it is to get an associate offer, since as long as you don't suck horribly as an analyst they'd want you to stay. I'm pretty sure this is true for most bulge brackets, may vary depending on group culture/market conditions obviously.
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Apr 24, 2011 07:15
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tolerabletariff posted:TED is quite literally my favorite website and I wish the author was my MD. He's obviously really loving smart, but his writing style just blows me away. I bet he's great to work for. He seems intense and extremely meticulous. Probably a great person to learn from but can be a nightmare with work for. I have an MD who is the most personable guy in the world, but comes up with turns at 2am like there's no tomorrow. Congrats on the interview and offer  I would strongly lean toward the strategy offer. If I could take a 40% pay cut and even just work Hope everyone in NYC is ok with the protest and all, my friends at Deutsche are having a hell of a time getting to work.  Thankfully my bank (as most banks nowadays) is in midtown.
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Oct 2, 2011 16:01
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Thoogsby posted:People going IB Analyst -> Buyside -> MBA -> IB Associate is almost unheard of. Why work the same ungodly hours in IB as you would in PE if you can make more money in PE and have more job security while being abused less. Not to mention having much cooler things to work on. Not true. Maybe for S&T/Capital markets, but in IBD there are a fair number of people who bounced back from buyside. They do not necessarily go via the MBA route (most frequent I see are those who went analyst -> buyside -> screw around for a bit -> come back as associate, possibly while doing part time MBA). Almost everyone I know who works at a BB has come across a few associates like that, and it's even more common in some "elite" boutiques. It's not a common sight but far from unheard of, especially as of last couple years.Also you don't hear it too often because they are unlikely to bring it up. It's not all voluntary though - some people came back to banking after their fund blew up or got laid off. Also some people came back at the behest of their old MD, and they get preferential treatment. I'd say only go corporate if you have a very good idea of what you're getting into. Ask most bankers how they feel about working with corp dev guys and you'll probably get a string of rants about incompetence/laziness. I've been on more than a few deals where the corp dev guys were worse than useless. fougera posted:Exactly why I'm thinking an industry coverage instead of product group. Working for private investments would be awesome but working for an up and coming tech firm would be just as exciting (and potentially more lucrative). Dear god please don't do this - unless it's a very respected industry group (most likely TMT) you will have worse/fewer options. Gonna be frank there - you get some points for industry focus (or "expertise"), but lose a ton for not being in a "top/prestigious" one such as M&A or LevFin. Trust me, I'm in an industry group. Private placement is only good if you do not value technical skills whatsoever. If you want to work in tech in the long run then push hard for TMT if that's a good group at your bank. edit: sorry just saw your posts on previous page - yeah go for tech, but find out where the analysts go first (linkedin, friends, ask the group, etc.) Socialism fucked around with this message at 02:57 on Feb 16, 2012 |
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Feb 16, 2012 02:52
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fougera posted:What do you mean "private placement"? So just join the best group? I noticed you don't have pm's can I email you? Sorry I was/am a bit delirious and that was the first thing that came to mind when you said private investments. It's basically helping company get funding from select investors (i.e. "private investors") that can be anything to super rich folks to institutional investors. It's done pre-IPO and usually small scale so not covered under capital markets. I'm guessing you are really meaning private equity/VC/HF sort of stuff? Most banks have specific groups that execute private placements. They are usually called Private Funds Group/Special or Strategic Solutions (not to be confused with special situations groups), although they cover more than just private placements. Yes join the best group. Be aggressive/thorough in researching where analysts have gone. Don't take words at face value. e.g. if they say "yeah we have tons of analysts who have gone to PE/HF," try to figure out exactly how many and which funds. For corp dev, find out if they got it by personal connections or if the group actually helped. Feel free to email me ~redacted~ Socialism fucked around with this message at 14:22 on Feb 16, 2012 |
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Feb 16, 2012 07:07
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Swingline posted:I'm trying to make a budget for the summer. I'm guessing I'll end up paying ~2000 in taxes after my rebate on the $15000 comp. How much will they probably withhold though and is there any way I can avoid the withholding and just pay come tax season?  You gotta be kidding me. I bet you'll be one of those kids who buys 3 extra bottles of water on seamless just to max out the budget.For taxes, you gotta fill out one of those forms that claims exemptions. You -can- put like 3 federal exemptions and hope the firm doesn't correct it, that way you pay at a much lower rate than marginal. You're more or less screwed with NY/NYC taxes, I think those are automatic regardless what you put. Go read IYG threads on phones. I'd recommend an iPhone on verizon because you'll probably get a lovely AT&T blackberry, and iPhone has infinitely more finance-friendly apps than Android, and it's more reliable.
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Feb 20, 2012 16:27
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Its Miller Time posted:What are some of these apps, I have an iphone and don't have any finance related ones. Besides Bloomberg news/index prices. Bloomberg anywhere is on android as well actually. I posted this in the android thread awhile back http://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=3444421&pagenumber=98&perpage=40#post398810216 Basically compared to Android, iPhone has stuff like datarooms, FactSet, and depending on the firm you may or may not get GOOD (lets you check corporate emails on the iPhone). Also afaik most banks don't offer much support with android phones either. Also there are tons of finance studying aids on the Apple market if that's of interest, stuff like CFA/GMAT flash cards and accounting reviews. Socialism fucked around with this message at 01:24 on Feb 21, 2012 |
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Feb 21, 2012 01:22
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The Gnome posted:I'm wondering if someone has any resources for learning how to perform a DCF model in Excel, step-by-step? I understand the fundamentals, but I was wondering if there were any resources that actually show someone researching the data from an income/cash flow/balance sheet. Thanks! I highly recommend paying for the guides at http://www.mergersandinquisitions.com/ Or alternatively any reputable training programs like Training the Street. You should be able to model a DCF just based on what you learn from accounting/finance textbooks. I don't know what you mean by "researching," it's mostly just copy pasting the appropriate numbers. You may have to adjust things like adding back stock based comp or project out balance sheet for change in working capital, but I'd say start with getting familiar with a simple one and the rest will come easily.
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Feb 26, 2012 15:47
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Smerdyakov posted:Ok, that answers my questions pretty fully, and the link is helpful! How badly do you seriously want to work at a hedge fund? (You'll probably never get into an investment bank except maybe a lovely low-rung underpaid position just fyi) If you're truly motivated, I can tell you the basic path you have to do - I've spoken to sizable number of hedge fund analysts and those who came from non-traditional and non-connection routes have done at least the minimum: - Write investment thesis, in fact write many investment theses. Get people to read them and give feedback - ask friends/family/anyone you know who knows anything about business. Make sure your writing is excellent and ideas are very convincing - Make yourself good at interviews. Take drugs, hire tutors, do whatever you have to do to not suck at answering the behavioural questions - Literally contact everyone you know who might be even remotely useful. Comb through alumni list; use linkedin to find high school alums if you absolutely have to. - Perfect your resume, pay for a professional review service. - Reach out to headhunters first. They'll probably ignore you 99% of the time in ordinary circumstance, but if you've done my first suggestion and have a couple phenomenal investment theses written up then you have a better shot. - Then reach out to individual funds, you can cold email your resume+thesis if you have no contacts. There are a LOT of resources available - check out http://www.distressed-debt-investing.com/ (1) and the other websites linked there. You can pay the dude $3000 or something and he'll advise you on how to best approach things, but to be blunt for you I don't think even the $3000 advice is going to be sufficient. The above are pretty much the absolute minimum you have to do. You can also grind your way through MBA (which it doesn't sound like you want to) or an asset management/ [insert-generic-finance-job] career but that would cost you quite a few years of your life. oh and Smerdyakov posted:and I'd have to say I have pretty weak math skills I hope this means "I don't know calculus very well" rather than "I'm not good with arithmetic, even the basic stuff." Because if it's the latter then you have ~0% chance of getting past first round interview even if you manage to land one. You don't need advanced math, just at least be reasonably quick in doing basic math operations in your head. (1) It's a blog focused on distressed debt but it has a lot of info on investing in general and links to other very helpful websites Socialism fucked around with this message at 05:49 on May 8, 2012 |
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May 8, 2012 05:38
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Bobx66 posted:Can I see which insiders sold FB stock and how much? I know Zuck had to file an SEC statement but I'm curious to know if that's just because he is an officer/owns 10%. I'd like to see exactly which employees sold what. Is this possible? Do you have FactSet (Lionshare)/Bloomberg/Capital IQ? Any of those can tell you that easily. You can manually check Schedule 13D/13G's (search them manually on Edgar), and for a company like Facebook, any material sale by Zuck will probably be covered by the media. There's really no way to track insiders' holdings in real time if that's what you're thinking. Outside of 13D/13G's, the most recent of shareholder list you can get is as of last reported quarter. I'm not exactly an expert on this so someone might have a better idea but this is pretty much what I do if my MD asks me for an insider transactions analysis vOv.
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May 26, 2012 00:45
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This year has been exceptionally slow. My first year I remember pulling 4 110+ weeks straight, got caught taking (legal) painkillers at work and sent home, getting a staffing email as soon as I got home... This year has been a joke - I used to do all-nighters at least once a month, but now I bitch and moan if an associate had the audacity to email me at 10pm. To be fair, nobody actually works 100% of the time. There is considerable downtime when you're just spinning your chair and reading the news. However I tell this to all the new first years - it's far from just the hours that kill you, it's the complete lack of mental stimulation (90% of the time) due to meaningless/repetitive work plus nonstop unreasonable/asinine requests. Don't worry you'll be jaded and bitter in no time 
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May 30, 2012 13:59
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Thoogsby posted:M&I released their preview a week or so ago. http://www.mergersandinquisitions.com/2012-investment-banking-bonus-predictions/ Hahaha does he seriously expect other BB's to pay more than GS this year? I'm operating under the assumption that I'll get around 40k at most as second year (i.e. good luck getting me to show up before 10 and stay past 9). I'm actually one of more conservative analysts, a couple other 2nd years and 3rd years regularly show up at 11 and leave around 5. I don't think most of us even care about getting fired since no one wants to stay anyway.
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May 31, 2012 23:26
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tolerabletariff posted:I'm sorry if that was humor or sarcasm, if it was I definitely haven't picked up on it... Unless you're at UBS or some other sinking ship where presumably no-one gives a single gently caress, it seems pretty hard to believe. Especially since 3rd years are basically associates in training--going a2a, at least at my bank, is almost a condition of the third-year offer--it's hard to imagine any of them acting so cavalier. Our third year offers have already been given, and most of us with third year offers either declined, a few "accepted" but don't plan on staying past a few months. Also helps that we have heaps and heaps of Associates (soon to have more associates than analysts!) who can't risk being laid off and thus still work relatively hard. We don't have any analyst-to-associates. Most of our VP's are pretty checked out too (somewhat top heavy group, so limited promotional opportunity anyway). I now frequently get emails from this one VP that were basically "hey Socialism I really don't want to review this book can you just tell the MD I did and put generic pages in..." The same VP used to stay with me all night to comb through drafts vOv edit: holy poo poo Leo that's terrible, I'm very sorry.
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Jun 6, 2012 14:36
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Rankings and (in a couple of weeks) bonus numbers are coming out. I'm 99% sure that I will make less this year than last, even unadjusted for tax, same ranking.
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Jun 28, 2012 14:27
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I think interns just finished across most banks. This year will likely be very brutal, probably at least as bad as last year if not worse. If you're looking for internship for next year summer then it's ok-ish, I think banks always hire a decent number of interns. However if you haven't done a finance internship yet, it'll be a tough road ahead... If you're looking for a full-time without having interned in banking, best of luck because pretty much half of the banks have implicitly indicated that they'll take vast majority of full-timers from this past intern class. However, the offer rate seems to be pretty miserable this year from what I've seen, not to mention a few banks pushed back their offer communication date which can be Very Bad. On an unrelated matter, I've been officially in banking for 2 years  3 years is my limit, so one more year to dig myself out of this hole...edit: gently caress so sleep deprived I can't even remember the right : toot :... Socialism fucked around with this message at 20:03 on Aug 11, 2012 |
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Aug 11, 2012 20:00
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The Gnome posted:Thanks man! You'll be fine - having past finance internship is more often than not just a "tick the box," especially for interns since everyone knows sophomore internships are 99% BS. Just make sure you can at least answer the basic finance questions - e.g. how to calculate EV, what are the main valuation methods, what does an investment bank do... No one expects juniors to know much - you'll be mostly evaluated on qualitative stuff like "why banking," "why this bank," etc. Frankly banking interviews are very easy and predictable, just be personable and able to tell a decent story about your experiences. edit: also completely unrelated advice (not targeted at you) - for all new or wannabe-bankers, please make sure you don't leave any embarrassing or controversial trails on the internet. You will be found out. (e.g. don't be a dummy and tell everyone your personal details on internet forums!) Socialism fucked around with this message at 06:18 on Aug 14, 2012 |
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Aug 12, 2012 05:13
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The Gnome posted:On that note, I would appreciate it if you unquoted my e-mail. Thanks! Done, good luck!
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Aug 14, 2012 06:19
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fougera posted:So its halfway through my second week working in the group (after a month of general training). Who else here feels utterly useless? Everything I do takes forever, usually has mistakes, and its clear no one trusts me with anything too substantive. How long until things get "better"? A couple months at most. September (after labor day) and October are usually very busy so you'll learn fast. Many people feel like that at the beginning, don't worry about it. Try to not make repeated mistakes and you'll be fine.
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Aug 30, 2012 05:55
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Its Miller Time posted:I'm surprised we haven't gotten any kids in here asking about an exciting career with Northwestern Mutual as an insurance rep. Aka the 21th century version of going door to door hawking life insurance. I'd guess the thread title probably prevents that since most people don't even know what bankers do. Maybe the next iteration of the thread could be a more general - finance careers? Might be helpful to be less so IBD/S&T focused since I don't think there are many of us around  Actually who am I kidding, this is basically asking investment bankers to share the same room as retail bankers.
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Aug 31, 2012 23:51
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ch3cooh posted:Be honest with me IB goons, what do you think the atmosphere is going to be like in the next year or so for capital raises? I'm looking at needing to raise $10mm to acquire some oil wells and work to increase their production. I'm worried that a lot of capital is going to be sidelined for a while. I think that's an extremely difficult question to answer, and aside from macro conditions it depends on what kind/size your firm is, how are you trying to raise the money, etc. I think the general sentiment is that the downward pressure on oil prices will continue, which is the primary concern I'd have without knowing anything else about your company. That said, $10mm is a very tiny amount, maybe you guys can just take out a loan? I have no idea how corporate lending works though, sorry vOv
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Nov 8, 2012 00:18
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ch3cooh posted:In the short run, downward pressure on oil might not be such a bad thing. Since the acquisition price is almost entirely based on the valuation of the reserves (I understand that the general rule is 80% for PDP, 50% for PUD, and 15-20% for probable), a lower oil price leads to a lower acquisition price. Thankfully, most of the places we are looking to make acquisitions are outside of the issues of Cushing based pricing. Ah I see - I had thought you were part of a larger oil company looking at small acquisitions. I think these sort of deals fall within the realms of the smaller boutique/specialist banks. Sadly I'm in the technology space, so my tiny bits of knowledge only come from the work I did around E&P software companies, but you seem to know what you're doing so best of luck!
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Nov 11, 2012 00:55
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usernamen_01 posted:Just to be clear, you're talking about MBA programs offered at places like HBS and Penn, right? Would you say that the only realistic way to get a job as an associate at an IB firm is by graduating with honors from an Ivy-league business school like those two? It's not very hard to get a job in banking if you go to a decent business school. The barrier here isn't really prestige for you - your Navy experience will likely be viewed very favorably as mentioned before. The problem is that it's very hard to convince a bank to hire a 29/30-year old first year analyst, and you don't really have the prior experience to be hired in at a more senior level. If you're hellbent on banking you may end up having to do an MBA straight after undergrad You don't need a highly prestigious MBA to get into banking though. However you need to think really, really hard on whether you want to start in this job fresh at the age of 30/31. It's a very painful job for a 22 year old and it's only worse as you get older.
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Nov 20, 2012 05:05
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usernamen_01 posted:That's probably my biggest fear. If not IB, what would be a good way to get into the finance industry? Without sidelining into a wide-eyed monologue about how the world of finance interests me (it actually does, to be honest), are there other ways to get into it without going into investment banking if I can't find a job at a firm? Basically, a plan B or C. Others with more experience can probably answer this better, as my whole If you like the investing part of finance, build a portfolio and shoot for a hedge fund or something. If you like the corporate side, go work for a corporate. I'm sure you've heard the same recommendation repeated ad nauseam, but use your networks as much as possible. There are way too many functions within finance for anyone to give you definitive recommendations, but you have the advantage of a huge network of people to help you figure it out.
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Nov 20, 2012 16:22
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