[The_Don_123]

(Original post by Bloodbath)
I've never heard of DC Advisory Partners. Could you tell me a little about the culture and the kind of stuff they get up to?

What are Cornell's interviews like? Standard stuff?

http://www.dcadvisorypartners.com/

They used to be Close Brothers

[Euribor]

Here's more info on the name change:
http://www.privateequitywire.co.uk/2...isory-partners
Can't speak for UK offices but in one of the Euro-offices, culture seems to be good from what I heard from colleagues and hours seem to good.

[Fantomas87]

(Original post by Bloodbath)
I've never heard of DC Advisory Partners. Could you tell me a little about the culture and the kind of stuff they get up to?

What are Cornell's interviews like? Standard stuff?

I'd also be interested to hear how Cornell go about this

[Euribor]

Basically:
1x20-30min interview.

[Bloodbath]

So how does DC Advisory rank against other boutiques? Would u work for em?

[Euribor]

They're a strong MM player AFAIK but it's all relative to what you want whether you want to work for them (fit, prestige, dealflow, work/life balance) and if you have any other offers.
I think they rank among ibanks like Gleacher Shacklock, Numis, Hawkpoint, etc. Take what you will from it.

[thegeniouc93]

I got a rejection from Rothschild some time ago. Like I didn't even receive an email but I checked the status of my application and it stated that the position I had applied to was closed. Have you checked the online status of your application? What do you mean an offer? So you have beeb through all the assessment centres, because I was rejected from the beginning

[nitestar]

(Original post by violenti)
Nitestar, You make some interesting observations in relation to Rothschild. I am keen to receive an offer from them as I guess having interned last year at a similar size "mid tier" bank, and am pretty certain that mid tier is for me. However I know someone really well at home, who worked in the Consumer/Retail team, and he left after a year , as did every graduate who started following their internships! in the same team.

I was surprised to hear this as Roths are apparently known, for their sensible hours. He tells me he was working, as was the whole team did six days a week 9am to 3.00 am the next day! He did say, it depends on the sector/team you are in, but on any construction these hours seem insane. Is that a one off in terms of lifestyle/culture, or the "norm" at Roths? Any advices as to how prevalent these hours are, particularly when compared and contrasted with other banks?

Lastly, I applied for an internship a month ago for Summer 2012, and have still yet to hear, is this the norm in terms of awaiting to hear with an offer or rejection?

Many thanks for your help in advance!

Sorry for the delay. I personally think that it is not a good sign if you haven't heard back from them since September. Or wait, have you gone through the whole interview process? Have you checked the online status on their website? That is absolutely true, but I think it depends on the team and its not that you stay everyday until 3am, so I do not think it is a norm.However, I have heard that some teams do work until 3-4am or at the weekends, however I cannot tell you how prevalent this is. Sure it's not a good sign if graduates leave the firm after a year at Rothschilds, it really does speak against their culture and people which is a pitty. True it really does, however usual hours are till 11pm the earliest at most IBs, even at boutiques. Also, keep in mind that Rothschild from what I've heard has face-time, compared to others like Houlihan who don't. If I were you I would focus on other ibs as well.

[DiscountedLashFlow]

(Original post by nitestar)
Sorry for the delay. I personally think that it is not a good sign if you haven't heard back from them since September. Or wait, have you gone through the whole interview process? Have you checked the online status on their website? That is absolutely true, but I think it depends on the team and its not that you stay everyday until 3am, so I do not think it is a norm.However, I have heard that some teams do work until 3-4am or at the weekends, however I cannot tell you how prevalent this is. Sure it's not a good sign if graduates leave the firm after a year at Rothschilds, it really does speak against their culture and people which is a pitty. True it really does, however usual hours are till 11pm the earliest at most IBs, even at boutiques. Also, keep in mind that Rothschild from what I've heard has face-time, compared to others like Houlihan who don't. If I were you I would focus on other ibs as well.

There is no facetime at Rothschild. If you're done at 7pm, you go at 7pm. Even as an intern I was advised not to ask for work past 10pm and was always told to just go home early.

True, most teams work very hard - and 3am finishes do happen. But only if you are working on a deal/pitch that requires significant input. 3am is not the default.

[DiscountedLashFlow]

(Original post by violenti)
Hi discounted ! I dont't doubt what you say is correct, the point I was making is that , for reasons best known to my friend, there was NEVER any downtime, although I suspect that is as much to do with the fact that Roths, take pretty much anything that comes through the door. He wasn't an intern but had secured a ful time place following an internship, which he left after a year! On the Question of an internship at Roths can you tell me(private me ) if you wish what the culture, hours, and people ,including including the conversion rates to full time offers! I hear it is usually only about 20% of interns convert to full time offers!?

Thanks

Your friend might have been unlucky with team/dealflow, or just wasn't cut out for it. No downtime to me suggests he/she was probably not the most efficient worker as I know people across basically every team and haven't heard of this.

Culture: very collegiate, quite continental, quite aggressive but generally supportive.

Hours: Depends on dealflow, but for me, 9am-midnight was about the median, 10pm finish was a good night, and 2-3am was a particularly bad night. Virtually no weekend work in 7 months.

Conversion rates: Summer interns is very poor (3/17 last summer). The reason is that they focus more on long term interns as interns there for 5-6+ months have a much better chance of establishing themselves and thus become better at the job than someone there for 10 weeks. There are 3 internship cycles (Winter, Spring and Summer), and I'd say only about 10-15% of the class will come from summer interns, 70% from long term classes, and a few hired externally. FYI, from my off cycle intern class of c.20, 6 were hired, but we all know how tough the market is now. Ordinarily I'd say off cycle conversion rates would be about 60%, and summer internships about 30-40%...

[DiscountedLashFlow]

(Original post by violenti)
Many thanks for this, most helpful indeed! Although it is beyond me how one can do the longer internships, whilst they are in the midst of their studies!

Nobody in my internship class was still studying -all were graduates, average age c.25... 70% with Master's degrees, 100% with relevant experience...

[Jakeh]

After meeting the Deputy Head of IB at Lazard i've got to say whoever interns there/gets a grad position is a lucky guy! Really awesome.

[DiscountedLashFlow]

(Original post by violenti)
That is interesting, so all the interns were in real terms relatively "mature"? Presumably that was for the Associate programme?

Yes. And no - graduate analyst level.

[thegeniouc93]

(Original post by DiscountedLashFlow)
Yes. And no - graduate analyst level.

So they do an internship after graduating with their MSc? I thought it is a prerequisite to be a registered student in order to do an internship and be a penultimate student, too?!

[itchens]

Yeap, this year many IBs were offering internships, instead of full time positions. I think this gets more and more popular, given the bad market situation.

[thegeniouc93]

@euribor. Rothschild is not a boutique, since they also offer wealth management etc. Hiring has generally been really bad this year. Especially the big banks, many og whom have been struggling, have only offered internships to graduates. But I know from my own experience that boutiques like Houlihan, Lazard GHL etc. have also offered full time positions to a few lucky people..
By the way here is a tricky "speed dating" link about recruiting questions from Goldman Sachs and Houlihan Lokey http://www.fins.com/Finance/Articles...Houlihan-Lokey

[ginnzi]

(Original post by thegeniouc93)
@euribor. Rothschild is not a boutique, since they also offer wealth management etc. Hiring has generally been really bad this year. Especially the big banks, many og whom have been struggling, have only offered internships to graduates. But I know from my own experience that boutiques like Houlihan, Lazard GHL etc. have also offered full time positions to a few lucky people..
By the way here is a tricky "speed dating" link about recruiting questions from Goldman Sachs and Houlihan Lokey http://www.fins.com/Finance/Articles...Houlihan-Lokey

Haha thanks for the "speed dating" link. The HL interview process from your link seems quite intimidating and stressful and at the same time funny. And I have heard from friends who have interviewed at HL that their process is quite technical . However, I will definitely apply since they are growing in prestige and are focused on financial modelling and technical stuff, so you'll learn loads as an analyst. I disagree;the FT refers to Roths still as a boutique, so it should still be one (not a BB)

[ibdprincess]

@thegeniouc93 thanks for the interesting link about possible recruitment questions. Actually, I was asked the pencil question of Goldman Sachs at an interview and also one with ping pong balls . My conclusion is that Lazard, Houlihan Lokey, Greenhill, Rothschild, Gleacher are all great firms and with great prospects. True, they are all growing in reputation, given also the bad reputation of many BB. Actually Houlihan Lokey is hosting together with Deloitte the prestigious Wall StreetJournal CFO Network in Ny today.
All of them are great firms and I would work for any of them any day. However, getting a place at any of these firms without previous finance experience is really hard, especially given the weak current market.

[massylib]

so who has started applying for analyst positions at these great firms? I know lazard and houlihan have already their application systems running..

[Jakeh]

(Original post by massylib)
so who has started applying for analyst positions at these great firms? I know lazard and houlihan have already their application systems running..

doing the application now, going to spend the weekend on Lazard questions.