Bankers say it's not just Baird: Most industrials teams are a nightmare
The industrials team at RW Baird in Chicago may be a less popular place to work in the future, following the Wall Street Journal's investigation of its nightmarish working conditions. However, this need not dissuade anyone from joining Baird's other teams.
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Juniors at Baird say that while the Chicago industrials team was working 110-hour weeks and serving pizzas to incentivize 4am pitch decks, junior bankers on other sector teams at the bank were having an easier life. And although Baird industrials is an extreme example, juniors who've worked across sector teams at other banks say industrials is almost always the worst place to be.
"I worked on a different team at Baird," says one vice president (VP) who left recently. "I have only great things to say about it, and about the culture in NYC." A junior on a different team at Baird in London confirms that life is fine and tolerable: "I'm not subject to the issues [in the article]."
However, both say Baird's industrials team is worse. "I know people in the Chicago industrials team and they say they just need sleep," says the VP. "They're consistently working until 4am or 5am. It's pretty-depressing."
The problem is partly one of deal flow. The Wall Street Journal says Baird's industrials team advised on 23 deals last year. Dealogic says it ranked 5th for mid-market industrials M&A. "The Chicago team focuses on mid-market PE backed companies, which is an industrials hotspot. And they're Midwest focused, which is where Baird is based. - It kind of all aligns," says the VP.
Some of the issues, though, are not specific to Baird. Industrials bankers from other firms say that being a banker catering to the sector is always gruelling. "Industrials is such a diversified sector that you can be staffed on a deal involving a home smart metering company one day and then a deal with an aircraft company the next," says one. "And you have senior bankers leading industrials teams who don't understand all these different areas they're pitching deals to in the same way as, say, a FIG banker would."
Because MDs on industrials teams aren't always close to clients, juniors on industrials teams can be sucked into a life of relentless pitching and few actual deals. And every pitch involves coming to grips with a total different business model.
"At the junior level, industrials is probably the worst," says the ex-banker from the sector. "Industrials teams often cover many sub-verticals - capital goods, business services, chemicals, building products, aviation, transport etc. - and you have MDs desperately trying to get their share of deals and resources."
Because of this, juniors are often staffed across multiple pitches, each with its own dynamic. Senior bankers may not understand the dynamic themselves. "I can't even count the number of times I had to explain to a vice president or director who didn't understand the sub-vertical why my slides were relevant," says the ex-industrials VP.
He quit, along with most of his team. However, he sounds a note of optimism for junior bankers who can endure life in the industrials team: "If you can get through it, you can have a good career in the sector and you'll be taken care of internally as you become more senior."
The only problem? " There's often a huge cost." Don't let that be your health.
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