investment banking analyst

research associate

analyst

banking associate

associate

William Blair & Company

William Blair is a great place to work, but my position there (research associate) is not meant to be a long term position. Given that there are few opportunities for advancement, after nearly 7 years i believe it is best to see what other opportunities are available.

A typical day starts at 7:30 am with a quick scan of the morning's headlines relevant for the stocks my team is responsible for first, and the broader economy next. The remainder of the day is spent replying to client requests and questions and conducting primary research on new companies to cover or doing in depth analyses on certain aspects of companies/industries we already cover. The job is challenging, but rewarding as often times we are the first to have to react to news and formulate opinions fairly quickly.

Often news will be disseminated at 6 am central time and we have to read, react, and communicate our opinion to our investor clients by 8 or 8:30 am. It can be stressful and challenging, but being able to correctly assess the impact of a given piece of news or data on stock prices is very fulfilling.

My co-workers are generally all very intelligent individuals who have helped me grow in many ways, particularly in my approach to problem solving. I will miss them and i hope the caliber of employees at any firm I join is as high as it was at William Blair.

Though I learned may valuable skills such as financial modeling, effective and succinct communication strategies, I think the most valuable lesson i learned was how to read body language and interact with c-level executives.

Finally, though my primary experience is in investments, the analysis we had to do for our companies on a daily basis and the way we had to communicate our ideas made me comfortable and happy to work in any area of finance within an organization or even in other areas such as marketing, sales, or strategy.

The private wealth management part of the firm is fairly unstructured, and there was no formal training program like the large firms. "We work in ideas" is what I was told, and I found it to be true. There were no sales contests, and none of the breathless talk of younger advisors about the size of someone's book that I heard at another larger firm. A typical lunch or afternoon meeting featured either a William Blair analyst expounding on the financial parameters of an industry and the companies he or she covered, or the CEO/CFO of a covered company explaining their business model, challenges and strategy. Advisors are truly independent and not close with mutual fund wholesalers, though they do rely on the firm's analysts. Many employees, even admin and support staff, have worked at the firm for many years. The top principals of the firm were very down-to-earth and would make time for any employee.

Although the company culture comes across as a nice place to work HR and Hiring managers and leaders in IT are totally disconnected . While i was employed there the projects and tasks where always changing (Project creep) as leaders always found a way to manipulate and change things as a project already started . Also when it came to evaluating solutions little involvement from security was always the case or security was brought in late in the game. What i learned  i learned on my own and from other collogues nothing came from the business as far as investing in employees.


My support group was not very supportive. They were initially with praise and cards that said I was doing a great job. Then suddenly when I was resistant to moving to hourly and dropping the design and CAD alignments of my original job description they contrived that I was suddenly doing a bad job.
Built a brand new headquarters and yet with an onboard designer they refused to listen to common sense design problems and dangers. They fell for most of them. Idiots.

A typical day starts with discussion with supervisor regarding the days activities and assignments.  Learned various computer skills.
Management is is always available for discussion regarding the day's assignments.  Enjoyed meeting and working with fellow, knowledgeable employees.  The most enjoyable part of the position is management acknowledgement of daily assignment completion.

During my 4 years working at William Blair was a pleasure and my coworkers were always great people. They were respectful, kind and friendly people and I would reconsider at some point in the future working with them again if I get an opportunity. I learned many things like setting up conference rooms, filing, and communicating with people. One difficult thing I remember is setting up conference rooms when meetings would happen back to back.

The people at Blair are their greatest asset. Smart, funny, and great to work with are just the start of what can be said about everyone. 

The work is dynamic and the environment is fast-paced and competitive. There are times when it can be a challenge to keep up with the demands of the job. 

Overall, management works hard to make sure the workforce is informed and knows where the company is going. They have great plans for the future and are growing.

WBC has lost all the good people that knew the culture and kept true to Mr. Blairs - our people are our greatest asset. New managers from local financial firms come in and change the dynamic due to their own insecurities. Money is spent outside, leaving internal people to worry about their jobs and lose them to bring in their own people.

More than 55% of workforce has been there 5 years or less compared to 5% years ago.

William Blair is a well known Investment Banking firm with a very stellar reputation in the financial industry and very committed to  their clients as well as Philanthropy work.

I Assisted The Equity Research Team with  Heavy Calendar Management, Expenses, and Intense domestic and International Travel.

William Blair is a financial services company based in Chicago's Loop. The company employs 20 administrative assistants. Additional responsibilities are available upon request, but there is little room for advancement. Tuition reimbursement is not available to assistants.  William Blair has an "old fashioned" feel. Assistants do not use laptops or Blackberries and are not expected to log in from home.

Top Job Titles	Average Salary
Investment banking analyst 3 salaries reported	$115,000 per year
Research associate 6 salaries reported	$121,250 per year
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Banking associate 3 salaries reported	$191,667 per year
Associate 3 salaries reported	$191,667 per year

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