Londontown ✅

Welcome to the NEW 'Protected Saturdays' Newsletter

Excited to share that we’ve moved onto Beehiiv officially as of today with Jack's rec from Litquidity. I'm making the trip back to EWR/MIA right now from LHR and slight change in our process — I'm going to start getting these out on Fridays technically before your 'Protected Saturday.'

Americans work too hard: Not gonna lie, London was great — the people are super respectful, hard-working, but I think a big take-away ended up being that the British respect their time-off and worklife balance more than their American counterparts and that itself is a slight breath of fresh air — I think Americans work and stress too much in the States. Sure we make more money for it (in some cases a lot more) but if you get a Global Salary for a role in London/Europe getting the same comp as you would in the US and with a better finance worklife balance/culture, you have literally made it 😎

In case this is your first time receiving this, learn more about me, Rohit Malrani — Co-Founder, OfficeHours Banking & Buyside Recruiting Prep & Coaching. We have helped over 1,000 individuals break in with a 95% Placement Rate!

London Wrap-up

I am writing an official LinkedIn article with all of my thoughts but for now a quick summary below (add me on LinkedIn to stay in the loop on that one). Overall, these are some of my take-aways from almost ~50 interactions this past week.

Many drinks/coffees/lunches/sometimes 2 dinners a night... I'm going to sleep a lot this weekend😴

• Global Salaries = continuing on my point above of London folks making less

  • First point here = working hours are better in London than they are in the US, people aren't jealous of Americans and their working hours nor their culture

  • Second point = if you can work for one of the major firms i.e. KKR, CVC, TA and finagle a Global Salary aka getting paid in dollars the same amount that you would in the US, then you literally have best of both worlds. You have the culture, different languages of Europe and your Global Comp goes FURTHER in London than in NYC (think $450-600k💰💰💰 for a Senior Associate at a firm like KKR/TA/CVC). This is VERY important as you think of the firm you want to go to and using this as a negotiating tactic

  • London groceries are apparently cheaper, going out is roughly the same, coffee is slightly cheaper, however where you save money is the rent which would be lower than NYC's average of $4-5k/1 bed ridiculousness... London taxes however do kick in at a lower rate (~40% at $120k+)

  • just as an FYI: IB first year analysts in the US will see a base of $100-140k vs. in London 65-75k pounds/annum = $79-91k. As an FYI, BOFA and other BB Associates will be at 200k pounds ($244k) all in whereas their counterparts can approach $350k+ in the US. Centerview closer to 300k pounds ofc. Although, I have heard some MM VP's/Directors in IB in the UK making ~200k pounds as well whereas I know some VP's/Directors clearing $600k+ in the US...

Now what’s interesting regarding this lower pay is that you only pay high taxes on the days that you are in the UK, for sake of discussion if you’re traveling quite a bit outside the UK, you can keep that money in a separate bank account offshore and spend separately in EU/EU brokerage account - this is stuff you literally cannot do being in the US lol (pros and cons everywhere).

Firm Optionality & PE with a good worklife balance: Good news is there are MANY FIRMS to choose from when it comes to the Buyside — figuring out where you want to establish a specialty is important as is networking your way into various funds to get an understanding of how people think and what day-to-day looks like at a specific firm (you will only find this out by connecting with people live, do not expect to find this information on firms' websites).

Facts below sourced from here:

• 550 European VCs to choose from

• 272 European PEs

• 61 Newcomer Funds 2022

• 146 Non-European Investors with European Presence

I think what's great is that there isn't the same pressure to move into PE as there is in the States. OfficeHours has helped individuals place into 2024 PE Opportunities but the reality is you can do 4-6 years as an Analyst/Associate, even Transaction Advisory and then move into PE later in your career out in Europe (less common in the states). In the States, we have seniors in college preparing for On-Cycle Recruiting 2025 right now lol.

All-in-all, the take-away is that the US is rather intense when it comes to career preparation and progression compared to the rest of the world.

'Top-Tier' Growth Funds are not performing well

Wow, without getting into any real specifics = I have been hearing with the FTX scandal amongst IPO’s that went up and then down, we’re talking about various “top-tier” growth funds being marked literally at 0% if not DOWN — I wonder how this will affect their hiring environment going forward into 2023.

And last, I had such a great time in London that honestly I wasn't able to get this email out earlier so for anyone who missed our Black Friday/Cyber Monday Lifetime Platform Access Deal — so here you are 🥂

Coaching is more custom so please text us for this deal (this is also only available today!) 🎉:

I hope everyone has a great Protected Saturday, I won't be working — and I hope you won't be either✌️