Vault’s Verdict

Perella Weinberg Partners is looking for intelligent, motivated, hardworking candidates to join its team. The firm’s interns receive hands-on experience and exposure to all levels of bankers and senior leadership. PWP’s full-time junior professionals get a lot of live deal experience and significant client contact. The firm has a culture of mentorship and feedback, and juniors have the opportunity to take on a lot of responsibility. In addition, there are clear promotion paths, many beneficial internal trainings, and the opportunity to rotate among the firm’s business units.

Although hours can be tough at times, a healthy work/life balance can be achieved. Recently, the firm put into place several initiatives to improve work/life balance, and senior professionals show a high degree of respect for junior bankers’ time. Meanwhile, compensation is very competitive with other top firms and is especially generous for strong performers. Wellness offerings are not very extensive, but they do include gym and general wellness reimbursements as well as free access to the Unmind mental well-being app.

Diversity hiring programs are strong at the firm, and PWP has done a good job of finding high quality diverse candidates. As for the firm’s business outlook, it is very strong. PWP is well-positioned compared to its peers, and it continues to announce numerous large deals despite the current economic climate.

Hiring Process

“Looking for smart, motivated candidates with a good work ethic.”

“We’re ideally looking for well-prepared, passionate individuals with a demonstrated interest in the type of work we do. The callback process is swift, and we typically extend offers the same day as final interviews.”

“We generally look for good mix of personality, drive, and overall fit, along with the experience and brainpower to do the job, while opening the scope of potential candidates wide enough to ensure we have a diverse environment.”

“Very selective recruiting. Sometimes I can't believe the quality of candidates we are turning away."

Interview Questions

“Mix of technical and behavioral questions. It is very competitive with a lot of qualified applicants. Candidates should know DCF, LBO, and merger models well enough to answer questions about them.”

“For junior hires, there’s a good mix of technical and fit questions—perhaps a bit more technical than other firms, with a focus on understanding concepts rather than just memorizing and regurgitating.”

“M&A back-of-the-envelope accretion-dilution math, accounting questions regarding financial statements, etc. Behavioral questions usually try to answer the following question: Will this person be a good team player? Are they humble enough to ask questions and learn from others, yet confident enough to lead a strong team and manage both up and down?”

Intern Experience

“Great experience with exposure to all levels of bankers and senior leadership throughout the firm.”

“Live deal experience, culture of mentorship and feedback, openness to include analysts in client meetings, and the opportunity to take responsibility for your work.”

“The weekly ‘homework’ assignments were extremely useful and served as excellent benchmarking checks throughout the internship.”

“High level of responsibility given to interns and inclusion on projects despite virtual format of internship. Not a lot of outreach from various groups.”

Career Development

“Early communication of promotions and informal mentorship. There is a clear path forward for good performers who want to stay.”

“I have transferred within groups on the banking side, over to the private equity business, and back to the banking side. Others have moved between offices and even to international partnerships in regions where we have no office. Path to promotion is generally clear.”

“Many training sessions are held that cover a wide range of topics, and a dedicated team for setting up sessions. However, the format of the training sessions is always part virtual/online.”

“Senior bankers lead continuing technical trainings on relevant topics, such as restructuring, legal documents like SPAs, etc. Behind working on live transactions, these trainings are the second-best way to get broader exposure. One area for improvement is better guidance and support for bankers transitioning from an execution based role to an origination role.”

Quality of Life

“There have been multiple improvements over the past few years that appear to improve work/life balance for juniors (and are reasonable enough from a senior perspective that they actually happen). However, this can differ by group, with limited connectivity between groups (something that has gotten more distinct over the past few years).”

“The hours can be tough at times, but they average out to be pretty good for banking. The people here are all very intelligent and work hard. We probably have room for more company-wide social events, but things are starting to come back now that Covid has settled down.”

“You don’t get tasked with unnecessary, low-value-add work late at night or on weekends, which shows a high degree of respect for junior bankers’ time. Vacations can be respected but often lead to missed opportunities to work on more interesting and engaging client assignments.”

“They implemented an initiative where juniors have to take five days off every six months of the year. It is good to formally encourage juniors to take vacation, but hours are sometimes still brutal and pretty unevenly distributed.”

Salary and Benefits

“Compensation is competitive with the top firms. Probably not very top of the Street, but we are right there and compensated adequately given our culture and hours are likely better than those firms/groups paying slightly more.”

“Compensation has almost always been fair and competitive with other top-tier firms in the market, particularly for strong performers.”

“Best part is the quantum of compensation in base salary and bonus compensation. Worst is a tie between the change from all cash to stock and cash bonus structure and the change in the meal stipend policy requiring consumption in the office.”

“Salary is good, flexibility to WFH has been diminishing, and facetime is coming back (though I think this is a common trend across all banks, not just PWP).”

Wellness Initiatives

“Wellness efforts include gym/general wellness reimbursement and Unmind application among other things.”

“Plenty are available but not very well advertised. Lack of on-site gym is unfortunate, but this is soon to be rectified apparently.”

“Resources are offered. We get a $50 reimbursement for exercise equipment/memberships, free counseling sessions, etc. Seems like more of a check-the-box than buy in.”

“There is little to none except for a monthly $50 stipend to go toward ‘mental health.’”

Diversity and ESG Initiatives

“Hiring programs around diversity have done a good job of finding diverse candidates of high quality—not sacrificing quality for an optically diverse headcount but still achieving the latter. I feel the diversity is solid and the efforts balance comfortable inclusion without making one feel like they were hired because of diversity, as is the case with some other firms.”

“The firm's efforts regarding diversity certainly exist and are advocated for in practice. I believe that it's true for a lot of firms, though, when I say there's still a long way to go.”

“PWP definitely presents a lot of opportunities for philanthropy and community involvement in which I have participated before and greatly enjoy.”

“There are multiple community involvement programs throughout the year as well as charitable donation matching.”

Business Outlook

“The firm has lots of space to grow in the areas we currently operate through market share gains. Significant growth in senior bankers over the past year should support growth.”

“Outlook feels solid relative to what I see at many other places, perhaps a benefit of being small enough to grow despite what the market is doing. Firm leadership is good overall, although communication and connectedness is lacking at times (efforts in this area are a bit generic, but at least they exist).”

“I think business outlook is strong for the most part. There’s usually a lot of talk about competition and other firms comparatively speaking and how we stack up to them.”

“I truly feel that we are the best positioned of the boutiques. Lots of good deals are still getting announced despite the slower macro backdrop.”