Vault’s Verdict

Harris Williams is ideally looking for hardworking, intelligent, motivated, proactive, entrepreneurial, solutions-oriented candidates who are collaborative, down-to-earth, and easy to get along with. For students, the firm runs a top-notch internship program, providing interns with significant exposure to live deals, hands-on experience, a great mentoring program, and plenty of formal and informal events to get to know bankers across all groups. For its full-time junior professionals, Harris Williams offers extensive growth and development opportunities, including a strong training program, excellent formal and informal mentoring, internal mobility options (across business units and offices), quick promotion cycles for top performers, and help from senior bankers with the buy-side job search (for analysts looking to move to PE after completing their commitment to HW).

Although at times the workload can be intense, the hours long, and vacation difficult to take, Harris Williams places a significant emphasis on providing junior bankers with work/life balance. Juniors get one protected week a year and one protected weekend a quarter. In general, senior bankers are understanding of junior bankers’ lives outside of the office, and insiders rave about the collaborative, friendly culture at the firm. Meanwhile, compensation is generous. Salaries and bonuses are slightly above the Street average, and perks are plentiful. However, some insiders wish the firm would provide more in the way of wellness offerings.

The firm has been focused on diversity hiring in recent years and has been improving in this area but still seeks to improve. Harris Williams has a strong military veteran pipeline but is less diverse when it comes to gender and ethnicity. With respect to Harris Williams’ business outlook, the future is bright. The firm has been growing market share and working on larger and larger deals. It’s very well positioned to continue to grow. Its senior leadership team has the full confidence of the wider team. Harris Williams’ reputation in the marketplace is strong and getting stronger.

EMPLOYEE REVIEWS

Hiring Process

“The firm is seeking intelligent, entrepreneurial candidates who are not afraid to take complete ownership of the deal process. They need to be capable of sitting with clients from the get-go and ensuring that they are simultaneously meeting their goals and the company’s goals. The ideal candidate will have a strong understanding of the sell-side process and be comfortable managing multiple workstreams.”

“Ideally looking for proactive candidates. In addition to strong analytical skills, they need to show well in front of clients and participate actively in deal team meetings.”

“Looking for hardworking, highly motivated, solutions-oriented candidates who are a cultural fit.”

“We’re seeking a candidate who is adaptable and ready to face challenges and develop but also down-to-earth and easy to get along with.”

Interview Questions

“Firm uses a mix of behavioral and technical questions in most interviews. Behavioral: 1) Why Harris Williams and banking in general? 2) What makes a good analyst? 3) Why do you think you’d be a good fit here?”

“Three statements and how they connect, DCF, tell me about yourself, talk about your resume and experience, and why IB. Plus cultural fit questions.”

“How you would market a business (the pros and cons based on limited materials).”

“45-minute technical case study at the start, then role-based case study during the Super Day.”

Intern Experience

“One of the best aspects of the internship was the high exposure to different stages of live deals, allowing me to get hands-on experience with two active transactions. I was assigned meaningful tasks, including opportunities to engage directly with clients. Another great aspect is the active mentorship during the internship. I was assigned three different mentors of different seniority (ASO, VP, and MD) to help me and give me feedback along the way. I have no complaints about my internship experience.”

“The internship experience was top-notch. Each participant was given an old deal that the firm had done in the past and walked through the deal process from beginning to end, with senior banker input at each step along the way. One of the best parts of the experience was the amount of interaction that occurred with all members of the firm. There were plenty of happy hours and informal events to get to know bankers across all groups and find mentors.”

“Everyone was so willing to help me. I felt like I had a constant flow of support throughout my time here! Also, everyone was really welcoming, including senior folks who invited me individually to grab lunch and coffee with them.”

“Ability to assume the full role of HW Associate over the course of 10 weeks with no bait-and-switch caps on working hours—just take the ball and run, allowing you to truly know by end of internship if this job is for you. Plus, client exposure from day one. Depending on the market, it can be difficult to find two live deals in different timelines that are both sufficiently active to accommodate a summer associate.”

Career Development

“At the analyst level, the career development opportunities at Harris Williams are unmatched. There is a strong history of internal promotions, with many MDs starting at HW as an analyst or associate. There is also a lot of internal mobility across business units and offices. However, I think what makes Harris Williams most unique is the fact that senior bankers help analysts recruit for buy-side jobs. The private equity placement coming out of the HW analyst program is as strong as anywhere.”

“The firm has a strong training program for incoming analysts and associates (four weeks consisting of external Excel/ PowerPoint training provided by Wall Street Prep and internal HW training). However, I’ve learned the most on the job through the exposure to informal mentorship and training at the firm—whether it’s learning through observing older analysts and associates or sitting in on marketing calls with VPs, director, and Ds. The open-door policy makes informal mentorship much easier than at other institutions.”

“The firm continues to place an increased emphasis on the development of all bankers, especially younger bankers joining the firm. Senior leadership has focused on refining the firm’s mentorship program and finding ways to promote the firm’s culture while ensuring development remains top-of-mind for all. Career development is a very active focus area. For someone who continues to be focused on career development, I greatly value the commitment to mentorship, not only in terms of my career but also to ensure we dedicate the appropriate time and resources to developing our next generation of bankers. Toughest aspect to navigate is that senior bankers are busy, so scheduling meetings can be challenging, but given the firm’s commitment to development, those crucial meetings eventually happen and usually yield very tangible plans of action.”

“We are very thoughtful about helping individuals define their strengths and pursue roles that maximize their abilities. We provide extensive training as well as formal and informal mentoring conversations that take place multiple times throughout the year. It is a very performance-oriented culture; top performers are quickly recognized and move through promotion cycles with good speed.”

Quality of Life

“The workload is intense, but the firm provides junior bankers with one protected week a year, one protected weekend a quarter, and seven days of unprotected vacation time annually. As long as you communicate with deal teams, the firm is very understanding that junior bankers have lives outside of the office. I can go to the gym in the evening and get a quick dinner with friends during the week and have time to myself on Saturdays. But it really depends on the intensity of the workload at the moment (July to September I was averaging about 75 to 85 hours a week).”

“Superiors will not keep you awake or doing work just for the sake of doing it; if there isn't anything urgent, you have a great balance. People at HW have a good relationship with their families and there’s nothing stopping them from attending events/occasions that are important to them (within reason).”

“Deal teams know that unless something is on fire, spending time with family in town, friends’ birthdays, etc., is important and the associate/VP usually will allow for some hours away to make time for this. This is more once a month rather than every week, so you have to use this flex time wisely and offer to do the same with others. This VERY deal team/industry group/location dependent (so I would defer to others on their experience). Protected time is actually respected (expectation is you do not open your laptop and only periodically respond if something is on fire). Culture is VERY positive (satellite office) where everyone knows everyone across all levels, industry groups, and positions, and people enjoy each other’s presence outside of work. It can be challenging working late almost every night. I have worked every day for months on end (including weekends), with the exception of one protected weekend. Protected time is scarce: one week per year (seven days) and only one weekend per quarter. They’re not super receptive to feedback about the request of more time off for junior bankers.”

“The firm is understanding of people needing to take a protected weekend or protected vacation every now and then, which is very refreshing. However, when not on protected time, you are expected to be there for your client pretty much any hour of the day when on a live deal, so it is a good tradeoff.”

Salary and Benefits

“Comp is well above the bulge brackets and on the upper end of elite boutiques, all while being based in Richmond. Even at more senior levels, the proportion of stock is low relative to peers.”

“Salary is slightly above the Street average. Transportation and after-hours meal stipend are generous. Corporate card reimburses TSA precheck, and there’s an employee stock purchase program. The 401(k) match vesting kicks in after year three, and the analyst program is only two years.”

“We have great benefits (i.e., insurance) and dinner stipends, but bonuses took a bit of a hit this year.”

“Good comp and benefits, but could have better perks—employee discounts, free meals, better snacks, etc.”

Wellness Efforts

“They offer free access to many health and wellness programs and apps, which I find very soothing. There are also a lot of team-building days and activities to promote wellness and team culture. It is generally accepted that you can leave the office to work out and eat dinner as long as there is nothing too pressing, which helps promote general wellbeing throughout the office.”

“Harris Williams provided me with an executive coach to help with finding better work/life balance.”

“Wish there were a health and wellness perk provided by the firm that contributed towards gym membership/classes. Maybe there is one provided by PNC that I am not aware of. Firm pays for Calm subscription for bankers. Firm buy in is good but could be improved.”

“The Firm does a pretty good job with extending support and wellness programs to those who need.”

Diversity and ESG Initiatives

“Harris Williams is extremely inclusive of all groups and has no issues there. I would put us up there with the best in terms of inclusivity. And we have a particularly strong veteran pipeline. However, we aren’t that diverse in terms of race or gender (especially at the senior level).”

“Each year, we interview more women than the prior year. However, it will take several more years to get beyond female bankers making up about 15 percent of the firm—that seems to be our current level.”

“Hiring of women has improved but it’s still a male-heavy office setting (this is likely also due to location in Richmond; not a lot of young people have Richmond as their top choice for moving post-grad). Most women at the firm I would say are in non-banker roles. Diversity with respect to race/ethnicity is so-so, but retention is poor. Needs improvement on diversity with respect to LGBTQ individuals.”

“My firm has diversity networks that are very active for all categories. In particular, there is a lot of veteran representation across the firm. Other categories of diversity don't appear in as high numbers across the firm, although that is not a result of a lack of recruiting efforts but rather self-selection.”

Business Outlook

“There’s a Monday morning meeting with the entire firm where firm leadership updates everyone on deals in the market, learnings from the market, and overall business outlook. Co-CEOs do a tremendous job of instilling confidence in firm outlook across the firm. Firm has been playing up and competing/winning business from bulge brackets.”

“The firm is very well-positioned to capitalize on lower interest rates in the coming year. Size of deals have continued to grow with continued momentum in the sheer number of transactions completed year over year. The firm’s reputation seems to also be increasing, as the number of buy-side engagements pick up with companies seeking out HW.”

“Middle market continues to be the strongest segment. So much so the bulge brackets and larger boutiques are trying to creep in. We have a strong competitive advantage over these players (more M&A experience, bespoke services, better understanding of the market, etc.), so I think we'll continue to take share. Our group is perennially busy. I think morale is fine.”

“Strong leadership who are available and transparent. Flat organization feel to a large firm and positive business outlook for the firm.”