Best Investment Banks To Work For In 2017

Centerview Partners office

CENTERVIEW PARTNERS ENTERS TOP THREE BY DOING GOOD

Meantime, Centerview Partners continues to blossom. Moving into the top three, it was among this year’s big winners in the Vault Banking 50. Five years ago, it ranked 29th for prestige. Since then, its esteem among fellow bankers has skyrocketed, which has even caught Loosvelt off guard. “Although I’ve been very impressed with Centerview’s fast rise to become a major M&A player,” he tells P&Q, “rising five spots from No. 11 to No. 6 is pretty amazing. It leaped over Bank of America, Barclays, Credit Suisse, and Greenhill. The year before, Centerview rose from No. 13 to No. 11 in prestige.”

While boutique firms traditionally score higher on quality of work and life metrics, Centerview Partners is almost the poster child for doing good by doing right. It owned the top spot in 10 of 19 employment factorsmeasured by Vault, including ability to challenge, business outlook, compensation, leadership, informal training, hiring process, internal mobility, promotion policies, relationships with managers, and overall satisfaction. One survey respondent credits the firm’s trusting and hands-off approach to producing such results — and happy team members in the process.

“Centerview trusts its analysts to manage their time wisely and does not babysit them or encourage face time. This means that while we are busy, we can make the lifestyle work for us in a way that our peers at bigger banks often can’t. We can work from home relatively easily, we can usually go to the gym in the evenings, and we can often do work on our own time. This sense of a degree of control over our time makes a challenging job in a challenging industry much more manageable and illustrates the respect Centerview’s leadership holds for its junior members.”

Another big winner was Perella Weinberg Partners. Aside from climbing from 9th to 8th overall, it ranked in the top 10 in 14 of 19 employment factors (including first in the all-important compensation category). Like Goldman Sachs and Centerview Partners, its success can be traced back to how the firm goes above and beyond for employees. “PWP recently rolled out several new workplace initiatives that are apparently positively affecting job satisfaction,” Loosvelt tells P&Q. “The firm recently formalized its protected weekend policy and implemented a policy for last-minute staffings. It also has improved its training programs and development offerings. Insiders told us this year that PWP “has been ahead of several of its peer competitors in rolling out new initiatives.” They also rave about the career development offerings. All of this was reflected in the firm’s rankings and scores this year. In fact, its score rose 9% in internal mobility versus last year, 8% in work/life balance, 8% in compensation, 6% in benefits, 5% in vacation policy, and 4.5% in hours.”