Stout Reviews

The IB group: - Is grossly underpaid (see every other Stout review on IB) - Is trying to cut its way to profits (not possible) - Takes on projects that are very low-quality and have a very low probability-to-close, which contributes negatively to banker morale as many deals are not closed in spite of months of hard work put in; close rates are several orders of magnitude below industry standards - Contradictory with respect to culture and experience; bankers were told a "good culture" comes at the cost of slightly lower pay and better hours, however, in reality the culture is completely nonexistent and disjointed, pay is ~20% below market, and hours are comparable to those at direct competitors

Too many to list honestly.... It's Big 4 culture with none of the benefits. Your comp can be $50K off from the nearest competitor, and is very much "ceiling'd"... there is virtually no flexibility to their pay bands. Promotions are time-based (manager explained to me "you're killing it but you have a couple years to go..."), and MDs across the group have zero regard for work life balance for junior folks, even for the most insignificant/ridiculous client requests that should be pushed back on. Add all this up and you start to wonder why people work here... they don't for too long typically if they have ANY other options. So you just wind up with mediocre people who couldn't jump ship who get promoted over long time horizons who continue to amplify the awful Big 4 culture that they are adamant that they do not have.