Overview
Introduction
Centerview is one of Wall Street's most highly respected M&A advisory firms. It's known for working on high-profile deals for clients like CBS, CVS Health, and Time Warner. Centerview is also known for compensating its people very well. Salaries and bonuses are top-notch, medical benefits are excellent, and it offers many other perks like free breakfast and lunch and large dinner stipends. Recently, the firm has made a huge push to improve its diversity recruiting efforts.
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Vault Verdict
A very prestigious investment banking boutique, Centerview is looking for intellectually curious, self-aware, humble, well-rounded candidates with strong communication skills and superior problem-solving skill (a finance-background or major is not required). For students, Centerview runs a very rewarding internship program. Interns have access to incredible training, get to work on live deals and perform impactful work, and have a high level of responsibility. The firm’s generalist model means interns get exposed to a variety of different industries and deal types. Meanwhile, the firm’s full-time junior bankers have access to extensive career development opportunities, including very strong formal and informal training and mentoring. In fact, embedded into Centerview’s culture is ...
About the Company
In 2006, UBS Vice Chairman Blair Effron had dinner with his friend Robert Pruzan, a veteran investment banker and former CEO of Wasserstein Perella. The two men decided to capitalize on the lucrative M&A boom by going in to business together, opening a boutique they dubbed Centerview Partners—the name came from the view at their new office on the 19th floor of Rockefeller Center. The firm has since moved to larger offices in New York; it also has offices in London, Menlo Park, Paris and San Francisco. And today, that firm’s clients include 20 percent of the 50 largest companies in the world.
At Centerview, there are just two lines of business: M&A advisory and restructuring/capital advisory, with both businesses addressing strategic, financial, and operational issues for its clients. (An affiliated capital group foc...
Employee Reviews
“The firm is very supportive of vacation time and prioritizing mental health. However, the hours can get quite long, especially when multiple clients have conflicting deliverables. Overall, the long hours are manageable because our staffers take the time to listen to our needs and capacities and are willing to help us adjust our workload accordingly.”
“The senior people at the firm truly care about the well-being of everyone here. Positive action is taken to make sure people have balance in their lives. The downside is the unpredictability of hours since we’re a client business, but I’m sure that’s not unique to Centerview, and senior people do work to mitigate it where they can, working side-by-side when the unexpected arises.”
“At the end of the day, M&A is a client service business, which means that schedules are fluid and days/weeks can be long. But those who stay in this job understand that this is what you are signing up for, and if you are putting in the hours, there is not a better place to do it. There is tremendous focus internally on ensuring that the culture is strong, and teams are closely monitored to ensure that the appropriate work/life balance is being facilitated. There are a wide range of internal programs that build connectivity both inside and outside of teams, and the firm very much maintains a ‘small-firm feel’ even as it has continued to grow.”
“The firm has no vacation policy, so as long as you align with your teams, you can take time off as and when needed, which is really great! Of course, this can be a double-edged sword, resulting in limitations to take days off if you happen to have a busier set of projects at certain times. Maternity leave seems to be great—I’ve seen people take six or seven months off—but paternity leave seems a bit hazy; people seem to always come back very soon. It would be nice to see new fathers being encouraged to take significant time off.”
Getting Hired Here
“We run a very thorough interview process, with heavy involvement from our senior people. We look for technical ability, but just as important are the ability to communicate, self-awareness, humility, and, perhaps above all, intellectually curiosity. Through our multiple rounds, a candidate who is not enjoying the interviews will almost certainly fall out at some point and frankly wouldn't want to work here—we view interviews as a two-way process where candidates get to know and evaluate us as much as we do them.”
“The process generally consists of a 30-minute to one-hour first-round interview, which is split into a behavioral and a technical section. Successful candidates then participate in an on-site Superday consisting of four 30-minute interviews with senior partners. The interviews are generally less conventional than other banks and focus strongly on problem solving skills and culture fit.”
“Centerview looks for well-rounded individuals. There are plenty of candidates with non-finance backgrounds who have been incredibly successful at the firm. In fact, these candidates often have an advantage and are able to differentiate against the traditional investment banking resume. The most important quality is being able to problem solve creatively. Those who do not need to be micromanaged or told what to do tend to excel—and are given lots of room to run.”
“Looking for a candidate who is smart and is able to do the job. Someone who is confident in their abilities but also humble. Someone who is a personality and a team player. Someone who is not the classic finance ‘hardo.’”
Perks & Benefits