Gleacher Shacklock Info (Boutique)

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I think begging is probably a slight exaggeration. But essentially I wanted to glean any information others may have about the firm. It's culture, reputation in the industry, interview process, the usual things anyone would want to know about a company when they're about to interview for them, and any other titbits someone might know. I'd understand your criticism about spoon-feeding ben if I were asking about Goldman or JP Morgan as there are thousands of blog inches and career books filled with information on the big guys. Gleacher however is quite a small firm, 30-40 employees in all, so there's not as much online or on paper about them so I was hoping tsr might bear some fruit. I've read as much of the online stuff about them that seemed relevant and their website is fairly corporate and opaque so doesn't provide many clues about the day to day workings of the firm, its reputation in relation to other boutiques or their assessment process. Any input welcome.

Come clean, do you really study English?

Reply 41

i_hate_teeth

Original post by barnisaurusrex

Come clean, do you really study English?

I was thinking the same thing.

Fruitful.

I also have a 1st round phone interview with their recruitment firm coming up, will post my experience here after. The email says it will cover knowledge of the company and position.

Reply 44

gfurnivall

I had a telephone interview on Saturday, and have an assessment centre next week for the Gleacher Shacklock internship. Does anyone have an idea of how much in-depth technical knowledge is necessary? As a law undergrad I don't really see eye-to-eye with quant work!

Reply 45

hello1988

Original post by gfurnivall

what kind of thing did they ask you in your interview?

Reply 46

fineline

Original post by gfurnivall

I also had a telephone interview and will be attending the "first round assessment centre" next week.

I am in the same boat as you, studying an unrelated course, and I think it is likely that the technical questions will be less demanding than for somebody studying finance. Nevertheless, I am expecting the technicals to cover valuation in some depth as well as corporate finance general knowledge.

I understand that we will also do some Gleacher Shacklock-specific aptitude tests, any ideas what these might be on?

Reply 47

fineline

Original post by hello1988

what kind of thing did they ask you in your interview?

For me it was:

1. Personal background
2. Motivation
3. Testing your knowledge on the company and role
4. Technicals

(edited 13 years ago)

Reply 48

hello1988

Original post by fineline

For me it was:

1. Personal background
2. Motivation
3. Testing your knowledge on the company and role
4. Technicals

What kind of technical questions? What degree do you do? thanks

Reply 49

gfurnivall

They mainly asked interest-based questions. Why corporate finance? What are the pros/cons about working in M&A? What have you done outside of university work which supports your interest? There were a couple of basic technical questions - Name two company valuation methods and what factors might affect the value of a company.

I'm not too sure the extent to which I'll need to know the formulas behind company valuation. I think I'll just get a general idea and the pros/cons of each method.

Reply 50

damidude

Original post by President_Ben

Not like they do anything else but advisory.

And no, I won't elaborate when all you're going to do is beg for it. I expect people to question positively - ie. auto-suggestion.

I'm never been in the business of spoon feeding and this industry isn't about that either.

Original post by Spurs657

Your inane posts really are starting to get tedious.

Original post by Zweihander

OP, I'm too lazy to list my full interview preparation ritual on here but assuming you're applying for M&A, here's the basics you need to know:

Technical Knowledge -

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Business_valuation
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mergers_and_acquisitions

Wikipedia is actually a great starting point. It'll give you the basic knowledge into valuing companies and why companies merge and acquire. You must know all the valuation methods and the dis/advantages of each. It's also good to learn all the different ways companies can finance deals, and the pros/cons of debt vs. equity vs. cash.

Company Knowledge - Read their website, and scour Google and the FT, and any other financial/business news sites.

Commercial Awareness - Again if you read enough, Google and the FT are really all you need here. Learn the inside and outs of at least 3 deals, one should be a big deal that's gotten a lot of press coverage (even after almost a year, lots of people are still talking about Cadbury/Kraft), one should be a deal the company's worked on, and the other can be any deal that interests you. It's not just enough to absorb the facts, you need to:

-understand the deal rationale
-have an opinion on whether the valuation was fair
-comment on if the bidder/target employed the best tactics and anything you think they should have done differently

This is all in addition to knowing your CV/experiences back to front, and having lots of good examples ready for competency/fit questions, assuming Gleacher does those.