Thomas Weisel Partners Reviews

Pros

- work/life balance
- team was very fun
- employees friendly (clearly not all but no one has monopoly on best people). But it was a good environment.
- Lots of ways to learn and study more. Colleagues willing to help
- good exposure to clients

Cons

- management not good with communication
- company first over client and employee
- pay was good but during recession certainly didn't improve a dime...
- a bit of back stabbing history from within.

Advice to Senior Management

I really don't have advice to give management. It was tough times when I was there but maybe try and not push everyone to the brink of going broke on a lie.

Pros

Good salary, nice location and decor.

Cons

Very political
Very gossipy
Women in the office are difficult

Advice to Senior Management

Better ethics at the top

Pros

Niche player in technology. Some VPs and Associates ok to work for. Decent office views. Some track record of deals

Cons

Insecure, backbiting culture. Work you to the ground without getting recognition. Lack of respect for juniors especially from Managing Director level. No laptops (no seriously)

Advice to Senior Management

need to provide better work environement for juniors. add staff to avoid over-burdening already stretched out analysts and associates. look into backbiting culture

Pros

Decent lifestyle balance if you are on the right team. Good place to learn the basics of financial statement analysis, stock selection, and to learn about an industry. Great offices

Cons

Compensation has fallen well behind peers. Sometimes you can get stuck as a research associate with not much career advancement opportunity within the firm.

Advice to Senior Management

The company needs to pay people that have put in their time The company feels as though the research associate position is easy to fill, and therefore does not feel like it is necessary to pay them well. People have been angry about President's salary for years-he should lead by example and take a paycut

Pros

Name recognition is good. Headquarters in San Francisco. Boutique size firm. There are pockets of intelligent, hard working people within the firm.

Cons

Disconnect between upper management and front lines. Management decisions concerning growth opportunities and direction of firm are questionable. Small market capitalization inhibits ability to compete with larger rivals. Lack of IPO's over the last two years has highlighted TWPG's dependence on deal flow. Th

Advice to Senior Management

Unwind the horrendous Westwind Partners deal and get back to core competancies...trading stocks and investment banking. TWPG spent way too much capital for near nothing in return.

Pros

Smaller than large firms typically means you get more exposure at a young age

Cons

Senior management leaves something to be desired which lead me to question future of firm

Advice to Senior Management

Focus more long term strategy for the firm, invest in young in talent like you used to (loyal employees versus rotating door of expensive hires)

Pros

I worked at TWP straight out of college. While many banks and consulting firms describe themselves as having a collegiate atmosphere, TWP actually lives up to the promise. I would routinely find myself tossing around the pig skin with my coworkers at 11pm while waiting for the days work to go out. There is very little feelings of competition with your coworkers and aside fromn everyone bitching about how pay isnt that competitive, everyone is pretty happy. For example, even though i am two years out, I I had dinner with two of my coworkers just a few days ago.

Cons

This may seem like an obvious observation but trust me, it’ll hit you after your first week of working at home. Consider this: your buddies wake up in the morning, get dressed, take a drive, get to the office, have some lunch, get back on the road, and then return home. Meanwhile, you’ve been there the whole time. This may seem like a sweet deal at first, but you may find yourself growing a bit tired of the environment - you are, after all, there 24/7. No matter how great of a work environment you’ve set up for yourself, a static environment can sometimes suck the life out of you. This pain point hits home the hardest at the end of the day when you’re simply dying to get out. The problem is, your buddies are all relieved to finally be back home and don’t have the energy to head out to the bar with you. Suddenly a drive out to the gas station is a major treat.

Advice to Senior Management

Be more straightforward.

Pros

Location, nice colleagues, positive culture, reasonable pay (for middle market bank). The culture is generally positive and there is not a lot of office politics.

Cons

TWP is not well-run from an operational perspective, senior mgmt doesn't always seem to be make good decisions. It's probably a decent place to work if you are in back office or administration. Until very recently the company was over staffed with upper management and administrative/back office. It has gotten better after several rounds off layoffs but for such a small company (600 or so employees) it can actually be somewhat bureaucratic.

Advice to Senior Management

See above

Pros

The people that you work closely with each day at TWP are good people. They are smart and work hard. It is a small enough company that if you push you can get yourself attached to most any kind of work you want to do. But you have to push.

Cons

Constantly busy. Hard to find balance between work and life outside of work. It may be said that this is true of every Investment Bank but I think the boutique firms like to believe they are different and that they do allow for work life balance. it simply isnt true. The pace of work and change in the organization is fast fast fast. That can be hard to keep up with and the pay doesn't always match the intensity. Banking and brokerage is a really tough place to be working right now so these same challenges will continue to intensify and the number of active employees shrinks and the same amount of work needs to be completed.

Advice to Senior Management

More communication.

Pros

Great culture for investment banking, SF location. Opportunity to work from origination through execution, Corporate Finance and M&A practice

Technology, healthcare, consumer focus. Significant client exposure including interaction with C-level executives and mid-level professionals. Experience in audit, business, financial, management and technology due diligence. Advised private equity and venture capital clients on potential investments and acquisition ideas. Participated in drafting offering memoranda, registration filings, road-show preparation and management presentations
Performed analysis for the companies under coverage and industry landscape overviews on various sectors
Coordinated analyst recruiting, summer recruiting, dinner sessions, devised study material for the analyst training class, and managed junior analysts

Cons

Long hours, lower bonuses compared to peers

Advice to Senior Management

be more proactive