Thoughts on Harris Williams?
Are they a strong back? Are they better to go to than most BBs other than the top ones? They seem to pay well and place well?
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Your analyst experience at a BB is different than at a MM bank. If you want to do lmm/mm pe, mm banking would prepare you well. Vice versa bb banking prepares you better for large cap private equity given the size and sophistication of companies you typically work with.
Yes HW does pay better than the BB’s but I wouldn’t let that drive your decision on where you spend the next two years.
If you think you MM banking is what you want to do then HW is a great place to do so and will give you all the looks you want from a MM PE standpoint. Only other MM bank I would take over HW is Blair - just my opinion tho, not trying to rank banks.
Harris Williams is a great bank and is especially a good place to be if you know you want to do 2 years and exit to MM PE. The bank itself is a sponsor sell-side machine, where they run very broad and standardized processes for their clients. As a result, they have very strong relations with sponsors and churn out deals, but at the same time the analyst experience there is definitely more cookie-cutter than at another MM bank like Blair or HL. HW also has a very strong implicit "2 and out" culture where analysts are not just encouraged but are somewhat expected to recruit for PE after 2 years and the buy-side recruitment process is heavily institutionalized (firm has buy-side recruitment workshops for analysts and MDs are expected to help the analysts out with reaching out to contacts), which results in HW having very strong MM PE placement.
Not trying to rank the MM banks, but overall HW is a great MM bank. I'd say the analyst experience and bank in general has a reputation of being the "best of the rest" of MM banks behind Blair/HL/Baird, but because of factors discussed above the bank is definitely among Blair and HL as top MM banks to be at for PE placement.
Would you recommend it over a BB then?
Personally I would still choose a BB for the optionality. HW is a good bank, but the experience there is very different as 90% of the time you'll be working on a broad process sponsor MM sell-side. You'll get far more variety in terms of deal exposure at a BB, and the name brand also lends itself to far wider exit opps. HW places very well into MM funds, but at a BB you'll still have access to that as well as larger funds if you desire.
Would say this is generally accurate although they changed the analyst program to 2 years from three and are incentivizing analysts to stay with higher-than-average a2a bonuses and time off. With that said the outplacement program is as strong as ever and most (~70%) of analysts still exit to PE bc the lifestyle can be pretty rough in most groups
Fair to compare HW to Lincoln? I interviewed with both and came away with the same interpretation that your just described sans the 2 years and our mentality. Lincoln encourages people to stay on and become career bankers. Like HW, I know Lincoln churns out tons of sell-side volume
Nothing against Lincoln, but HW has an established reputation as one of the top 2-3 MM banks. Lincoln does not, but it is still a strong institution.
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