| Investment Banking Summer Analyst |
Corporate Culture: Merrill is a tough place. At any given time you
could hear 4 letter words streaming from anywhere- an MD/Director
screaming at a VP, a VP screaming at an ASSociate, an ASSociate raining
hell on an analyst.
The people are smart, hardworking, and don't take success for granted.
You are expected to be working at all times, even when you're not
staffed on any assignments (which ends up in some unnecessary face
time). Culture also really depended on what group you were in. Some
of the industry groups were a lot more friendly- in the Energy/Power
group, a lot of the analysts had lunch together in a group. In FIG
(Financial Institutions Group), it was a bit cliquey. The IVY league
guys hung out together, guys from the same school would hang out
together... it really depended.
Diversity: Very diverse. I personally am a person of color, and there
was definitely a active pursuit to hire more.
Hours: The Hours were pretty terrible, but varied from week to week.
On a RARE good week, 60 hours with a totally free weekend (12 hour days
from Monday to Friday). On a average week, 75-85 hours for 6 days (14-
16 hours from Monday to Friday, additional time Saturday or Sunday).
On a bad week, anywhere from 95-120 hours (multiple overnighters). It
really depended on how active the week is, what deals you get staffed
on, and your workload. In some of the smaller industry groups, you
can't really hide out in your own little corner because deal teams are
much smaller and there are fewer analysts to find and staff. In some
of the bigger groups, like M&A, deal teams could get pretty big, and
there are way more analysts/associates and the staffing process becomes
much more random. You'd have some analysts juggling 8+ deals, and
others being staffed on 2 or 3.
Dress Code: Formal- suit and tie everyday. Kept shoes polished, suits
pressed, pants creased. Appearance was very important.
Advancement: The fulltime hiring process is almost all derived from the
summer program. I would estimate that 66% - 75% of the summer analysts
were given job offers at the end of the summer. Overall, an analyst in
banking does not have many opportunities for advancement. You spend 2
years, may be invited back for a third year (15% - 20% of second
years), and of those third year analysts, maybe 15% are given a bump up
to associate.
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