Clearsight Advisors

Vault’s Verdict

Clearsight Advisors is ideally looking for candidates with positive attitudes who are eager to learn, have strong people skills, and are intellectually curious. For students, Clearsight runs an excellent internship program. Interns get access to hands-on experience, live deals, mentoring, and client exposure. Interns are truly viewed as part of the team.

For its full-time professionals, Clearsight offers extensive career development opportunities, including significant early responsibility on lean deal teams, an established and highly effective mentor and buddy program, merit-based promotions, in-depth training sessions, and help with external exits.

While Clearsight’s culture is said to be phenomenal and the workloads lighter than at other banks, hours can still be quite crazy, with some insiders finding it very difficult to work/life achieve balance. That said, efforts are made to manage projects and deadlines to ease the burden, and weekends are not expected workdays by default. Meanwhile, compensation and benefits are generous—insiders say salaries and bonuses are above the market average for the number of hours worked.

Inclusion is another strength. The firm fosters a welcoming environment, employs women at all levels, and is becoming more diversified with respect to LGBTQ+ individuals, people of color, and veterans. As for the firm’s business outlook, Clearsight has a deep backlog of active engagements, employee morale is strong, and it’s well known for taking on quality deals and delivering exceptional client service. In fact, insiders say it feels like the firm is on the cusp of a serious breakout, as its market reputation seems to be at an all-time high.

EMPLOYEE REVIEWS

Hiring Process

• “Our firm has an all-hands approach to interviewing and callbacks. The interview process begins with a round or two with HR and someone who is in your direct role. Next, there is a round of interviews where you meet with all of the senior team for 30 minutes. The callback process is all within a week, which is great turnaround time considering how many individuals you are meeting with. Also, there are a lot of personalized follow-ups from the interviewer. The ideal candidate is someone who has a good attitude and is willing to learn, while also having strong people skills and intelligent curiosity—wanting and willing to learn and grow.”
• “Overall, we are significantly more focused on culture than other banks. We look first at the person we are recruiting, how happy they will be to be here, how they will fit in with the rest of the employees, are they a team player, etc. The process is quite simple with a set of first round interviews at targeted universities followed by a Superday at our headquarters in Tysons.”
• “Clearsight cares about fit more than anything else. Preserving and upholding the exceptional culture matters, so while technicals are important, a positive attitude and eagerness to learn matter the most. Most of the interviews are meant to gauge these skills and tap into the background of the candidate.”
• “Given that we are a smaller firm, we recruit heavily from schools that we have historically hired from (UPenn, UVA, William & Mary, Vanderbilt, UT Austin). We send dedicated teams that work with the career centers there to give presentations, connect with students, and ultimately select candidates for interviews. We also have a team dedicated to handling non-target school candidates that reach out online or over email. We typically receive several hundred resumes for only a handful of intern and full-time spots each year and are competing for candidates that turn down elite bulge brackets and boutiques alike to come here (myself passing on two bulge bracket offers). Once first-round interviews are finished, we invite a highly select number to a full Superday at the office, where they get to meet pretty much everyone at the firm in a formal interview setting, plus a meal with the bullpen. In a candidate, we care less about the prior financial experience they have (often it’s just highly unimpressive familial connections anyways that don’t speak to merit) and instead want to look at who can thrive in this job. We look for people that are scrappy, hardworking, will do what it takes, while balancing kindness and extreme thoughtfulness and smarts. We look for people that won’t burn out and will positively contribute to those around them. Ironically, for intern candidates, some of my favorite people are often those that have experience waiting tables; learning to balance the demands of five to seven patrons (sometimes wealthy, depending on the venue) that are all impatient/hard to work with often speaks volumes more to the quality of the person and their fit in a banking role than some random guy who is on his third consecutive summer at a random financial advisor that he landed through his family.”

Interview Questions

• “Depends on intern vs. full time, but generally there are a slew of behavioral questions that look to identify the key qualities that make a strong banker (teamwork, leadership, hard work, curiosity, etc.). While our questions are nothing super special, all of our interviews are effectively conversations that pull folks onto their toes to be able to talk to key attributes. Financial and accounting questions (varying by role) help us understand a candidate’s baseline understanding of financial concepts, though we ramp these up throughout the interview to see how well they can apply it/stress test their thinking (noting that sometimes saying ‘I don't know’ goes a long way). There are also valuation questions and at times even a fulsome pitch/case study presentation. We also have them take a more standardized aptitude test.”
• “Typical technical questions along the accounting and valuation spectrum. Behavioral questions are very geared to understanding background, interest, motivations, and long-term goals. Bulk of interviews are behavioral based.”
• “Basic accounting questions, 10 percent depreciation affecting the three statements, what would you invest in if you only had one investment for the rest of your life, otherwise mostly cultural.”
• “We have questions on our firm’s core values: integrity, teamwork, client service, impact, intellectual curiosity, and technicals.”

Intern Experience

• “Got phenomenal hands-on experience on every phase of the deal process and pretty much every deal deliverable. Got client exposure and received phenomenal mentoring with one of the greatest workplace cultures that made the long hours feel like I was spending it with friend.”
• “Best: Thorough exposure to all segments of the M&A process, staffed on multiple live deals across different business services/tech-enabled services verticals, fantastic culture and mentorship opportunities. Areas for Improvement: Could allow for more technical assignments in Excel—sometimes felt that there was a bias towards PowerPoint.”
• “Very hands-on, real experience on real deals from the start, staffed like a true analyst, just on slightly fewer deals/pitches. Minimal busy work and truly viewed as part of the team.”
• “Best: I was invited to travel to a kickoff meeting for a sell-side process in Charlotte. Treated me like a deal team member. Worst: Working 90-hour weeks.”

Career Development

• “People come to Clearsight to make a career in banking. Everything we do here is done with the long-term future in mind; we have several MDs here that started their careers here as analysts, and most of the senior team (VPs and directors) did as well. We promote internally and emphasize curiosity and learning in a non-BS way that allows people to flex beyond their roles and become experts across not only M&A banking from a finance lens but also get them fluent in tax structures, legal negotiations, etc. Promotions are also highly selective, and we ensure only the best of the best climb the ranks once they prove their merit. That said, in the event folks look externally to PE or corp dev or other opportunities, the whole Clearsight team works to provide references and tap their networks to assist with the search. While we are sad to see folks go (which we don’t see a lot), we do everything we can to help.”
• “I feel like I get more opportunities and responsibilities at Clearsight than I would at a larger firm. Because we operate on lean deal teams, I am expected to take on large roles early on and that translates to meaningful opportunities to improve both professionally and technically.”
• “Maintains an established mentor and buddy program, connecting team members to both a senior and mid-level associate for each analyst to learn from and get to know. Conducts in-depth, formal training sessions as analysts ramp up.”
• “There are monthly check-ins with your ‘buddy,’ which is usually someone above or below you. These are peer-to-peer meetings where you get the chance to reflect and gain some insight into how to approach different scenarios that may come up on the job. You also get the chance to have access to a mentor where you meet biquarterly or biannually. These lunches or coffees serve as important discussions on where you’re growing and where you’d like to go in the near-term and long-term. I appreciate these honest conversations, and it makes me eager to want to grow internally at Clearsight.”

Quality of Life

• “The culture is truly amazing. Everyone will tell you that. I would consider myself friends with everyone at the firm, which makes long hours far more manageable and even fun at times. Our team is typically extremely mindful of weekends, PTO, etc., and we have a comprehensive staffing methodology that helps ensure no one is consistently overworked. WIP: There are definitely a lot of hours associated with this job/industry that make things hard to balance at times.”
• “Clearsight is unlike other firms. I’ve worked for three other banking firms (national and boutique), and the MDs here don't require you to go through an assistant and find time weeks from now to talk—they’re around the office and engaging folks regularly. You’re trusted to be put in front of clients and the lack of brand/scale means the MDs need the leverage more here than other places. The hours are better here than most if not all places, but the analytics and tracking on the hours side isn’t as robust yet. We are only now implementing methods for us to track workloads more accurately and be better for the junior teams.”
• “It’s investment banking, so there’s only so much you can do—sometimes we get crushed and work crazy hours. That said, every effort is made to provide help as needed and to manage projects/deadlines to ease the burden; arbitrary deadlines are not issued, and weekends are not expected workdays by default.”
• “I think we have it better than many firms. The reality is analysts can sometimes work 110+ hour weeks and everyone recognizes it is not ideal, but we also just tend to accept it as a necessary evil.”

Salary and Benefits

• “As a smaller firm, our bonuses at the junior level likely have a wider spread based on company performance and proven merit. I am extremely happy with the compensation package (and all the benefits received from our corporate overseer Regions Bank; we are an operating subsidiary), as it has treated me extremely well in my time here.”
• “Salary and bonuses are above market for the amount of hours worked—no complaints!”
• “Clearsight is fair and generous with salary and bonuses, as well as perks (catering for in-office events, company offsites, etc.). However, the insurance we use (from Regions Bank) is specifically tied to Alabama even though we are based in McLean, meaning it can occasionally be difficult to find providers who accept our insurance. Overall, I’m very happy with the compensation package.”
• “The salary is very competitive and compensates well for the role. The benefits are also great with a nice insurance and 401(k) match. The expense system is also very reasonable, with perks like Uber One membership for free. Also with our corporate cards we get a lot of perks.”

Inclusion Efforts

• “Tons of women at the firm. We are also becoming more diversified across the firm as it relates to LGBTQ+, PoCs, veterans, etc. The culture here is pretty good and fosters a welcoming environment.”
• “We are unique in that we have an extremely strong contingent of women at the firm (who also happen to be our better employees). My analyst class was majority women, and we have women at every single rank that have found incredible success here. I have never seen this with competitors. We also have proven inclusion to people of color and regularly recruit/hire them (including from HBCUs like Howard). That said, it’s not perfect. The people of color who come to Clearsight stick around and become integral parts of the bullpen culture (and senior team), so my read is that once they are here, things work out well. The hardest part is competing for top talent within these underserved communities; if we are offering them, they are often also receiving offers from bulge bracket banks. We receive great engagement form these communities during recruitment and they always find a home if they come here. We just lack in conversion. Finally, we have both LGBTQ+ and military presence at the firm. These folks have thrived at the company, and we also always regularly ensure that former service members receive the thank you and honor they deserve.”
• “The firm has many women who are well-respected and admired. The firm does have a majority of white people, with only a few people of color, but the firm is encouraging of diversity and wants to be inclusive of multiple identities. For example, the upcoming class of fulltime analysts has three South Asian students (one of which is a woman).”
• “I have always found Clearsight to be a welcoming place, and I think that starts at the partner level and trickles down. The people are truly accepting and inclusive.”

Business Outlook

• “Strong backlog of active engagements. Employee morale is great despite us being very busy recently. We excel on our industry focus and are known for taking on quality engagements and delivering exceptional client service.”
• “I think we have the ability and expertise to compete with bigger banks and have shown that in recent years. The downside is sometimes that takes a toll on employees if we become overworked, but I think generally employee morale is high.”
• “It feels like our firm is on the cusp of a serious breakout. The quality of the assets we are pitching, winning, and selling is growing tremendously, and our market reputation seems to be at an all-time high. The only time we lose pitches, we come in a clear second, and typically it is either due to i) price point (which we have the luxury to hold firm on), or ii) prior relationships with someone at a more established firm. For what it’s worth, we have been told by PE firms that have worked closely with several other firms that we are ‘the best junior team they have ever worked with.’ On top of that, our senior leadership is extremely knowledgeable and competent; the biggest reason I joined the firm was because of the A-team quality of the folks here. We also just recently made some senior team shifts where unproductive members moved on to other opportunities, which was an important step in ensuring we are in a position to become the leading middle-market ‘knowledge economy’ advisor. That said, our business, like all banks, is rather cyclical. There is a lot of change happening in the tech-enabled markets, rippling through our industries. Change can be good, but it seems that combined with geopolitical risks, the number of assets coming to market is a little lower than we anticipated.”
• “Exceptional deal volume and pipeline. Joel Kallett is the best in the business, and Clearsight is exceptionally well positioned for a record year this year.”

UPPERS

• “Phenomenal people and culture—you will learn so much here and genuinely have an enjoyable experience”
• “Very interesting work with sophisticated clients.”
• “Opportunity to do meaningful work early on and exposure to numerous industries.”

DOWNERS

• “Overwhelming workload at times.”
• “Some decisions are made unilaterally with little visibility.”
• “Brand recognition.”