Vault’s Verdict

William Blair is looking for well-rounded, intelligent, hardworking, motivated team players with strong technical, quantitative, and communication skills. For students, the firm runs a very rewarding internship program. Interns get a tremendous amount of hands-on deal experience and exposure to senior bankers and clients. In addition, interns receive a lot of support, feedback, and guidance. For its full-time professionals, William Blair provides numerous growth and development opportunities, including effective training resources, significant early responsibility on live transactions, mentorship, clear promotion paths, and an emphasis on promoting from within (the firm wants its analysts to become associates).

Given that investment banking is a client-driven industry, there can be late nights and weekend work. However, senior bankers are very respectful of juniors’ time, vacation time is mandatory, and no work is required while on vacation unless absolutely necessary. With respect to compensation, while salaries and benefits are on par with the Street average, bonuses have been lower than the average the past two years, largely driven by the down market. That said, the firm’s bankers are optimistic about bonuses being higher this year. 

William Blair has been making strides when it comes to diversity, but there’s still progress to be made, especially when it comes to racial and ethnic diversity. As for the firm’s business outlook, William Blair is doing very well, crushing expectations following a tough year. Employee morale is on the rise, and insiders are confident that 2025 will be a strong year for the firm.

EMPLOYEE REVIEWS

Hiring Process

“The firm is seeking individuals who are intelligent, hardworking, genuinely interested in the work, and a good cultural fit.”

“Networking and the screening calls are really important. We use Campus Recruitment, allowing for a more centralized process as opposed to it being entirely team-led from point of application. There is traditionally a first-round interview and then a Super Day. The ideal candidate is a team player, high achiever, understands and values Blair’s differentiated model for collaboration and working as one team with no competition between peers. If the opportunity is in the Chicago office, there should be a clear rationale for ‘Why Chicago?’”

“There typically is a 30-minute technical phone screen and then a Super Day, which consists of five interviews, 30 minutes each. The ideal candidate must be a cultural fit and be technically skilled.”

“Looking for well-rounded critical thinkers who are self-starters, team players, and hard workers. While being technically and quantitatively strong are important, good communication skills are equally important, as all team members are expected to work directly with clients. Everyone is typically staffed on multiple live deals, so it’s also important to be able to work independently and move things forward while other teammates are working on other workstreams/deals.”

Interview Questions

“Walk me through a paper LBO. Tell me about things that interest you in the market, or about M&A deals.”

“Standard brainteasers. What are the three major financial statements and how are they connected? What are the major valuation methods? Please rank the major valuation methods in terms of value from highest to lowest.”

“Very behavioral-focused. Walk me through your resume.”

“A bit more focused on cultural fit than other firms.”

Intern Experience

“Best parts were getting to work on a live deal (sit in on meetings with management, help draft marketing materials, etc.) and getting to know the senior bankers. Having to work with a team virtually was challenging at times.”

“You get hands-on deal experience and are staffed as a member of the team with exposure to real work and clients. The workplace is kind, the firm is invested in my development and receptive to preferences around what I hoped to learn/experience. There are lots of support and regular check-ins/feedback.”

“Tremendous amount of responsibility working on live deals for an intern, and I worked alongside a great group of people. The hours were longer “than many of my peers at other banks.””

“The best aspects of my internship experience were the people I met, the industry knowledge I acquired, and the willingness of full-time employees to provide guidance.”

Career Development

“The culture drives everything here, which facilitates career development. Mid-levels go well out of their way to support and coach junior team members through tasks and create a sense of ownership. Junior team members are given a high degree of responsibility. Also, the firm hosts mandatory, effective training sessions two to three times per month.”

“William Blair has a lot of great resources and training opportunities for analysts and associates seeking learning opportunities. Also, Blair is very open about conversations around future career paths—they allow for these conversations to happen without impacting your progress and development while at Blair.”

“Robust internal training resources, including Wall Street Prep subscription, ample mentors and talent managers who are non-judgmental and unbiased when providing career advice and development pointers. Clear paths to promotion. William Blair wants their analysts to become associates—they aren’t kicking you out after two years.”

“Overall, the firm takes career development very seriously. We have tremendous access to Wall Street Prep and other educational platforms. Additionally, there are a number of career development and training meetings that cover everything from how to get promoted to improving your technical competencies. Informal mentorship is a large part of the firm.”

Quality of Life

“The firm does a good job of trying to protect from a completely off kilter work/life balance. But at the end of the day, it’s banking, and the market is coming back, so it’s busy. Generally, time off is respected outside of important questions or meetings.”

“Vacation policy at Blair has created a culture of respect around people’s vacations. Ultimately, it’s still banking, and there are client demands that require late night/weekend work. But overall, people are generally respectful around time and trying to be efficient in processes, etc.”

“We have absolutely mandatory 15 vacation days a year, and it is closed-laptop/completely disconnected, unless there’s an absolutely necessary process. I have taken all of my vacation with no issues and was completely unplugged for all of it. Yes, sometimes we do work long days (9 a.m. to 10 or 11 p.m.), but it is due to client deadlines, not due to our internal team forcing us to be online doing pointless deliverables. All work is meaningful and purposeful.”

“The hours and stress can be difficult at times. However, senior bankers here have much more consideration for deal teams than those at other firms. The collegial culture helps a lot—it’s much more sustainable to pull the longer hours sometimes needed when your deal teams, including the MDs, are collegial.”

Salary and Benefits

“Bonus compensation has been highly variable and experienced significant reductions in 2022 and 2023.”

“Best part: perks—good cafeteria and food options for lunch. Worst part: bonus numbers—significantly below market for the last two years. Food stipends for late nights working are below market as well.”

“2023 was extremely rough. It was a down year for the entire industry and thus compensation reflected that. However, I know the partnership took a significantly steeper hit to their comp than the broader employee base did (i.e., VP and below).”

“Bonuses have been low two years in a row while base salary has gone up minimally. Health insurance is okay, but we have to pay a lot out of pocket. Very few perks. But profit sharing is nice.”

Wellness Efforts

“Office areas are maintained based on wellness surveys, pushing to offer people window offices, greenery, etc. Nutrition and working out is encouraged amongst colleagues. If someone is sick, we are encouraged to work from home and it is not held against us in any way.”

“The firm itself does not have any wellness programs besides a few wellness rooms throughout the firm. However, the building (owned by William Blair) has opportunities for gym membership ($65/month), with meditation and nutrition services available. The firm itself has an excellent and healthy cafeteria, where breakfast and lunch are fresh daily and subsidized.”

“The firm provides extremely healthy snacks, a very discounted gym membership, and occasional wellbeing meetings, amongst other things. I think Blair cares about their employees more than most firms.”

“Very few formal measures in place like protected weekends or cut offs, but there’s strong informal support for juniors during difficult stretches.”

Diversity and ESG Initiatives

“I think there are constant efforts around diversity, but ultimately there is not significant diversity across the firm. William Blair is very receptive to feedback and is making strong efforts across the firm, but the lack of female diversity above the associate level is very obvious.”

“By the numbers, there isn’t extensive diversity (i.e., there is only one senior woman in the entire NYC office). Informally, however, I feel that it is an incredibly inclusive environment. Could just do better hiring-wise. There is extensive support for diversity groups (i.e., a women’s alliance, Pride alliance, etc.), which is incredible.”

“Blair hired a lot of women in my analyst class. Unfortunately (like most finance roles), not as many women stay to become senior bankers as men. But there are affinity groups, and I'm involved in the women's group, and we do lots of activities to promote a strong network.”

“My office has a significant presence of veterans, and overall, the firm has been making efforts to increase diversity. That said, there is a lot of progress that still needs to be made, especially on the racial and ethnicity front.”

Business Outlook

“Business outlook seems to be great. We are winning a lot of mandates and closing deals in my group. Seems like this year has been better, and I’m confident about the first half of 2025, but everyone is on edge to see how that translates into comp.”

“Overall, the business is carrying strong momentum coming out of a tough market. I think we’ve recovered much better than our peers from a poor 2022 and 2023. Year to date, our M&A volume has recovered significantly better than our peers. Morale is strong but will only hold up if bonuses are high this year, as the last two years were not great.”

“2023 deal activity and subsequent bonuses were poor. However, this year, the firm has had an excellent rebound. We are looking at the next 12 months with optimism.”

“The firm has done very well this year and crushed the expectations following a tough last year. Employee morale is coming back up and expectations for bonuses are high.”