WSO Weekly Wrap-up

March 29, 2025

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Hey WSO Monkey,

This week we talk about grappling with gratitude, burnout, and the big picture. Whether it's questioning if this lifestyle is worth it or debating if consultants add value, there’s a lot to chew on. Scroll through when you’ve got a moment or need a break!

-Patrick

Top Discussions

  1. A Lot of You Could Be More Grateful - "Yeah really put things into perspective for me a few weeks ago. I was skiing a popular vacation mountain and just chatting up everyone I got on the lift with. Just explaining your life to people “…where do you live? What do you do? Oh that must be lucrative…” quickly reveals how most of us live an unfathomably luxurious lifestyle compared to most of the country. Even just saying you live in Manhattan and work in finance makes people bucket you a certain way. We should all be grateful to be in this industry. We could work for the big 4 after all."

  2. This Is Not Living - "For the last ~18 months, I've worked at a LMM PE firm in South Florida. And while I genuinely enjoy the work, I’ve come to the realization that this is a sad reality. This is not living, and there is nothing unique about you, or what you do. You’re one of thousands—hundreds of thousands—not doing anything exciting with your life..."

  3. WF Is Severely Underrated in This Forum - "I am not claiming other firms don't get leads but they don't get them regularly or consistently without aforementioned financing relationships. BofA and Citi are some of the largest financing banks with vast commercial relationships that are part of their relationship-building get mandates. As mentioned in the initial comment, Jeff is regulated differently and their large-cap M&A mandates stem from sponsors or corporations to where they can provide highly-levered deals. UBS and to a lesser extent Barclays have positioned itself as a bank for sponsors and all their large-cap mandates are sponsor deals. Other firms like RBC gets as few lead mandates as WF does. Thus, I don't think WF using their financing capabilities to win large-cap mandates is particularly unique and WF isn't even the most aggressive in doing so; RBC is."

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Top Discussions (contd.)

  1. Are Consultants Useless - "Consultants aren't all subject matter experts. Rather, teams are organized with 2-5 partners and directors who are actual subject matter experts, and 2-4x as many junior-midlevel consultants. At a high level, the senior team members design approach and guide work, while the junior resources do the nitty gritty stuff to test hypotheses / get to an answer..."

  2. Greenhill Analyst Death? - "This is true. They've done a good job of scrubbing his online presence off the internet. He cited a pre-existing health condition causing immense pain in a note he left behind, but I'm sure the job didn't help either. Work-wise, the entire firm hasn't been busy for the past year, think this is a bit different from say a BofA situation..."

  3. Distressed Credit Dead? - "Distressed credit landscape has fundamentally deteriorated from the structural inefficiencies that characterized previous decades... today's market exhibits excessive capital concentration coupled with diminished opportunity sets, so your alpha gen has become increasingly challenging. The traditional information asymmetries and capital dislocations that once defined this sector have been substantially eroded through market maturation and technological advancement. What we're witnessing is not a temporary aberration but rather a secular shift in the fundamental dynamics that historically made distressed investing an attractive proposition for sophisticated capital allocators..."

New Podcasts Coming in Hot 🔥

  • Colby to Investment Banking at Bank of America | Chat with Ryan Stewart

  • Villanova to Evercore IB | Chat with Madhav Lopez | WSO Academy

Hot Jobs 💼

Equity Research Analyst - "Buy-side research analyst opportunity with a family office. The analyst will work with the direct investment team and report to the Portfolio Manager. The team employs a fundamentally driven investment process and an owner’s mentality...."

Research Associate (Equity Small Mid Cap) - New York, NY - "This position will support the Small/Mid-Cap Equity research team and initially be responsible for covering multiple sectors in support of current team members."

On Deck - Training 🎓

All in Eastern Standard Time

Stay Strong,
Patrick Curtis
CEO and Founder, WallStreetOasis.com

WSO Mobile App: iOS | Android

PS - We're also always looking to add resume reviewers and WSO Mentors to our team. Set your own pay (from $40/hr to up to $400/hr) to increase or decrease mentee flow. To submit an application, go here.

PPS - Think you have an interesting story? Want to share it with our podcast listeners? Hit reply and let me know!




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