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BO to FO: 3 Things That All Interns Should Know

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As everyone gears up for Summer Analyst recruiting, I’m pretty sure many of you have formulated various strategies and back up plans. What will you do if you don’t get that coveted Sales and Trading Internship? Would you accept an operations offer? Would you try moving to the front office?

This is mighty tricky business and you might just want to keep trying for a mid market firm’s S&T. But what if you’ve tried everything, the offer is expiring and this is your last resort?

Last summer, I faced the same challenge so allow me to now reveal some of my personal do’s and don’ts that you might want to consider as you devise a plan to get to the front.

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WSOCon 2013: Organize a Group and Save $

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The 2012 conference was such a success we're already planning the next one. The 2013 WSO Conference will take place Saturday June 29th at Hotel Penn (401 7th Ave) in their fancier (and larger) Penn Top Ballroom.

Group Discount Info (during the limited EarlyBird price):

  • Groups of 10+ people, save $20 per person
  • Groups of 5-9 people, save $10 per person

Email me at Andy@wallstreetoasis.com and I will help arrange the discount for you. I can give each person a discount code to use, or a discount code for one person in the group to purchase and then have your friends pay you, whichever way you prefer.

Get EarlyBird Tickets Today!

EarlyBird tickets are expected to sell out even earlier this year, so don't wait.

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It Doesn't Matter Who Won The Election

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“ObamaCare (or any other piece of legislation) may make you giddy or may make you want to shake your first at the sky. But leave all that out of your investing decisions because it doesn’t much matter. I know that’s hard for you to believe. Maybe even impossible. That’s your problem.” - from “Markets Never Forget”

Are you able to separate your political bias from your market analysis? If you’re being honest, you’ll find it extremely difficult. Example:

“Party X/Candidate Y got elected, and he’s an awful human being who likes to club baby seals! Short everything! It’s all going to zero!!!”

If this is you, read on.

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WSO is looking for interviews...

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Lately we've been doing more interviews, both with our members and also with people that have been referred to me (bosses, co-workers, friends, etc.) These interviews have been great content for the site and also very informative for the community, and we'd love to keep them going.

If you know someone who has an interesting story and would make for a great interview, let me know.

Email me at andy@wallstreetoasis.com and I will connect the person with one of our very talented contributing authors.

Thanks!

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McKinsey, Bain, GS, or GE offer choices

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After a crazy recruiting season I have managed to get offers from McKinsey and Bain, entry level analyst position all in comp around 85k. GS is in S&T, fixed income all in comp I think should be ~90k (depending on my bonus) and GE is in corporate development all in comp 70k. All the offers are in NYC except for GE which is at their headquarters in Fairfield, CT, so I wouldn't have move since I currently live in Greenwich. If accepted, which offer would give me the best chances at getting into a M7 MBA program?

Thanks for any advice!

Thoughts on McK culture?

Edit: Don't know if anyone cares but I went with Bain. Some information on me: Went to a non-target, completed a BS in applied math and physics with a minor in finance with a GPA of 4.0.

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Should you even be aiming for BB IBD anymore?

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Should you even be aiming for BB IBD anymore?

A couple of stories have hit the tapes recently which both make fairly depressing reading for those looking to jump into a new 2/3 year analyst programme at a bulge bracket bank.!=break>

1 - Bonuses are down. Way down. I can only give UK figures here but the average 1st year salary is now around £65,000 all in (20k bonus) which, after tax, is more like 35-40k. Numbers are similar in the US.

2 - Banks are slimming and trimming faster than an anorexic teenager. First Goldman announces it is cutting it's 2 year programme, then UBS lays off most of it's London bankers. Across the board the bulge bracket are cutting middle-management, promoting less partners and hiring less grads.

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I did not get the call from Lloyd this morning, did you?

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LLOYD!

Fewest partners as a public company and fewest since 1998. Making $900k a year base plus special bonus incentives only for the special partners. Lloyd must of forgot to call me :/

70 New Partners for Goldman Sachs, do you know any? Here's the list:

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Unemployment Benefits Hurting the Economy?

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Paul Krugman and many other liberal economists cite the high ratio of unemployed workers to job openings as meaning that labor demand, rather than supply, contracted the labor market. Casey B. Mulligan, an economics professor at UChicago, claims this isn't the entire picture. In this article, he reveals that it could also be telling of the supply side; namely, that additional subsidies in the form of unemployment benefits, etc. would give no incentive for companies to try to fight layoffs.

In an example such as a new tax imposed by the government on employers, companies certainly do have an incentive to let lower-wage workers go to save costs. At the same time, the other side of the equation can't be forgotten:

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How prevalent still is "Legacy Preference" at Ivys?

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For example what % of ugrad and mba students at Harvard are legacy students? What is the acceptance rate compared to that of a normal applicant?

How does this % compare to Ivys as a whole? How much has legacy become more/less important since the past, ie when families like the Boston Brahmin's filled the classrooms (and still do?). Just curious..

Additionally, knowing your son(s)/daughter(s) have x% higher chance of admittance, does this come into play at all to you when contemplating the cost of admission?

Competition amongst analysts

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Good morning fellow monkeys,

what is your approach to handle competition between you and your coworkers...and not only that, but to be the best analyst in your group?

Do you manipulate, withholding information or some sort of strategic game?

For example, what bothers me is: We have a new third year analyst, I am a second year analyst and we have to work on a deal together. He's been a consultant, so he doesn't know shit about modeling. For one thing I have to show him some things for the sake of the deal, but I don't wan't to show him too much because that would be liking shooting myself in the foot (= helping a competitor).

Any suggestions?

Thanx

Summer Analyst positions, and when they open

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I have talked with analysts from various firms, and most of them have said they dont start recruiting until late December and January.

Is this pretty much true for all IBD analyst?

Or are only the BBs going through recruiting right now?

Finance Hipsters

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Morning Monkeys!

I'd like to take a moment to discuss the growing multitude of "finance hipsters" and why they annoy the crap out of me. No, I'm not talking about hipsters who happen to work in finance, I'm talking about all these bankers who love to hate on the more ubiquitous methodologies in finance like CAPM (or portfolio theory in general) and DCF models. You all know what I'm talking about, in fact, at some point, you (or someone you know) has probably had this conversation:

Banker #1:

I'm going to get the cost of equity using CAPM and then get the intrinsic value from my DCF model.

Banker #2:

Oh, you still use CAPM and DCF? Man, that's so déclassé, you know the assumptions they use, right? You should use [insert any obscure, probably firm specific model], it's way better.

Replace "the cost of equity using CAPM" and "the intrinsic value from my DCF model" with "Modest Mouse's new CD" or "non-organic milk" and you have the quintessential hipster conversation.

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Make the most out of your MBA... Because you only get one shot

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Eminem was onto something when he sang “because opportunity comes once in a lifetime”… I doubt he realized that his advice is extremely relevant to MBA students!

When I came out of MBA, I specifically remember large banks posting “rotation programs” (sales & trading, or capital markets), associate positions, PE jobs, etc.

Many of these roles were specifically designed for “new grads”. The idea is you have to enter the field as a new MBA grad, or the odds of getting into that role later on are very slim. Sure you can always sneak in the back door, but the bulge bracket firms are primarily interested in recruiting on-campus.

These on-campus employers are treating the MBA program as the big stage – it’s your one chance to get noticed.

Here is a scenario to consider...

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Junior Accountant

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Boutique principal trading firm is seeking a junior accountant to assist in their fund and subsidiary accounting. Role reports directly to CFO.

Boutique principal trading firm is seeking a junior accountant to assist in fund management and tax accounting for the firm. Candidate will report directly to the CEO and work across the firm to calculate NAV, report performance, reconcile trade activity, and analyze firm expenses.

Candidates should have 2+ years of experience with some experience working in a finance company. International and partnership tax accounting experience as well as a CPA is a plus. Candidate must be comfortable working autonomously while handling many different duties as would be expected in a small environment

So You Made It to Banking, Now What?

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Congratulations!!! You made it into investment banking. Of course early on you're excited and just want to spend 100+ hours in the office to impress everyone and get that top bucket bonus, but how do you really get the most mileage out of your 2 year stint in banking? For most, it's about exit ops and this is becoming more and more true as we see bonuses go down the shitter. Heck, a lot of my friends got paid less in their 2nd year than they did in their 1st year!

Now if you're looking to stay for the long haul, this post might not be so helpful. In that case, there really is no secret trick or tips. You simply need to be good, which means a strong work ethic, good technical/modeling skills, and a legitimate interest in chasing deals and closing them.

For the rest of you, there are some ways to set yourself up for an exit while not necessarily suffering the most. So here are some tips from a fellow ex-BBIBD analyst that you won't find in most employee handbooks:

1. Plan your exit ahead of time.

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Be a Wall Street Oasis Contributing Author

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Project description: Finance / Wall Street / Business Writer
We are looking for several talented writers (professionals in the finance industry preferred) to write for WallStreetOasis. There is a list of suggested topics you can choose from but if there is an area of interest/specialization you would prefer to write on we are very open to hear your ideas (ie trading/markets, street culture, advice/mentoring etc).

We only ask that you commit to a minimum of one post (400 word min.) per week and a minimum of 8-10 weeks. More details will be provided during the interview process.

OR if you cannot commit to a regular schedule we are open to guest-posts (either one post, or a series) on a particular topic.

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Reuters Interview with David Rubenstein, Co-Founder of the Carlyle Group

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I've got something a little different for you today. I was browsing YouTube when I came across this fantastic in-depth interview with Carlyle Group co-founder and CEO David Rubenstein on Reuters' Impact Players series.

It's a little over a month old, so a small portion of the politics talk is dated, but there is some real meat in this half-hour long conversation. Some highlights:

  • Rubenstein passed on a chance to be one of the first investors in Facebook. His daughter dated a friend of Zuckerberg, but he didn't think it was a good investment
  • Carlyle has closed 20 deals over the past year, spending about $15 billion
  • He doesn't feel the same pressure to invest his LPs money as Aaron Ross Sorkin and I might have you believe

He also gives some insight into why Carlyle went public and how it's affected its management philosophy along with some interesting thoughts on geographical regions he's bullish on.

Read on to watch the interview.

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Normalized EBITDA: How to pay less for the same company!

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Purchasing Price

There are many different ways to determine the value of a company during an M&A transaction. Most of the time, the purchasing price is based on some sort of multiple (such as Firm Value / EBITDA). But what is a company’s real EBITDA? Let’s assume that the buyer’s investment bank decides to evaluate the target at 7 times its EBITDA. In order to accomplish a low transaction price, the buyer normally hires financial advisors from the transaction advisory department of a big4 company. Their role is to adjust the target’s EBITDA and to calculate a normalized EBITDA.

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Traveling America: What A Beautiful Country We Have

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Hey monkeys,

As some of you may remember, I am in the unique position of having a so-called 9 month period of freedom before I start my investment banking stint. Well, not it's more like 7.5 months, but that doesn't mean that I haven't been busy using the advice you all gave me a month and a half ago about how to best take advantage of this "break".

Here's the original thread I posted, looking for travel advice (among other things).

One user suggested traveling through the United States before going abroad -- I took that advice, and I've had a blast.

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M&A activity in Japan?

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Just a curious question if nothing else -- what is the state of M&A activity (or investment banking in general, for that matter) in Japan currently? In the next five years? It's always been a goal (or at least a line on the bucket list) of mine to work in Japan for a few years, but I'd ideally like to time it when dealflow isn't dry.

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