Piper Jaffray Reviews in Minneapolis-St. Paul, MN Area

Pros

Fun. Lots of great, smart employees.

Cons

Small and a little old-school.

Pros

Salary, bonuses and benefits are the biggest plus at this location...though you must work hard to earn them. Work/life balance is good too. Overall, nice people to work with.

Cons

Workload is overwhelming. Large producers are able to treat others with little or no respect and behave poorly as long as they produce.

Advice to Senior Management

Check in with support staff from time to time.

Pros

Stepping stone to other jobs within field.

Cons

Lack of communication is prevalent at all levels of this firm---from VP to MD to CEO---so the culture is still very much one of a boys' club.

Advice to Senior Management

Communicate with your employees in an authentic manner and have a strategy other than following what larger, bulge brackets do to make money in new products/markets.

Pros

- Great name, regardless of recent banking down turn in market share and dealflow
- Good pay, although not on an hourly basis
- Bonus pay in line with market

Cons

- Poor management and work-life balance
- Difficult times for all in current market turmoil however Piper did not prevail with a clear strategy to win new business

Advice to Senior Management

hiring senior MD's to build management is a good strategy and will build pipeline for future. Company needs to find closers who can rebuild the tarnished PJC name however

Pros

Good money if you can become an market maker or coverage trader
Probably the largest brokerage in the mpls st paul area

Cons

Huge turnover
management incompetence
investment banking runs this place
lots of nepotism
not much employee morale
lay offs all of the time

Advice to Senior Management

They need to have more stability in employment there, layoffs happen all of the time, one time they literally had everybody at their desk and if you were called you were laid off. pretty much like a firing squad.

Pros

The compensation and benefits are good. If you are in the midwest it is one of the few banks that is in MN so the location is good if that is where you want to be. IF you want a resume builder for the IB experience it is a decent place to be.

Cons

As with all investment banks right now layoffs are a huge concern Piper does not concern itself with its analysts or associates and barely concerns itself with vps and principals. I have seen layoffs at all levels. They don't give much effort to keeping even the good people. Senior management is not really concerned about mentoring and giving you tools to advance.

Advice to Senior Management

Build a team. Don't just use people for grunt work and then lay them off.

Pros

The benefits, facilities, office equipment and people are great. The company even has facilities
for bicycle commuting with a card-key accessible locker/shower room. There is a nursing mothers
room as well as a room to take a nap if you're feeling under the weather and you can then go back
to work if you feel up to it. There are some sides that show the company cares for and supports its
employees. The building is recently constructed, modern, well lit and in a easily accessible location.
The work can be stimulating, interesting and there were many opportunities to learn at Piper.

Cons

There are certain cliques that if you manage to find yourself on the outside of your career will either
progress slowly or stall altogether. First impressions count for a lot. There is a certain amount of stress involved in this industry as a whole that I honestly admit I saw filter down to employees - on several occasions I saw employees exiting the building on a stretcher and some of these people
were young and in reasonable shape. Also, as layoffs occurred multiple responsibilities filtered
down to those remaining. Company takes much notice of physical appearance - if you're trim, fit,
dress well and can conduct yourself professionally you will do well. Competitive atmosphere may
be too much for some.

Advice to Senior Management

People can only take so much stress before they snap no matter how healthy they are.
Recognition is a good thing and some employees who I saw were doing exemplary
jobs and didn't get the recognition they deserved. In the current economy it pays to
utilize resources you may not be aware of being right under your nose - pay attention
to your workers. Some of your best resources are under or unrecognized.

Pros

The only good thing, I guess, I could recall that it was location of the building (downtown of Minneapolis) very close to everything.

Cons

Not a good company to work for. First, compensation probably the lowest I've seen in comparable firms. I'm making at least 70% more now doing pretty much the same level job in operations in another bank. Second, management to say it politely, not the brightest and only interested in their own compensation and benefits. Treatment of team members is very poor sometimes even insulting. One of my former co-workers asked if he can have a personal business card issued for him. Manager just laughed him in a face. Most management is promoted not because of hard work but because of the favoritism. Not diverse environment at all. Many managers didn't even have a college degree. After they were bought by UBS they laid off pretty much all their operations.

Advice to Senior Management

It would be nice if you sometimes think not just about your bonuses and backdated options but about your employees whose hard work is very often overlooked.