Vantaggi
Extremely intelligent people (for the most part); hard workers, no doubt. team work is actually encouraged and enforced to help alleviate workload pressure. High volume business on varying degrees of deals; see all deals from across the board, from small apartment to institutional $100+ million deals, depending on the day. Great exposure, great learning environment.
Svantaggi
Upward mobility is questionable. Firm has a consistent motto of "promoting within" and "rewarding the hardest workers" but the reality is that it is a balance of having senior guys above you to pass work down / around for there to be an opportunity for younger guys to move up. There have been plenty of analysts who were around for 3-5 years that paid their dues but were not promoted or were passed over because other analysts had family connections. Work life balance is not high (or at all?) on the list. They may say it is but that's pretty much a flat out lie. As an analyst, your role is to do the work after hours and on weekends so producers can be out of the office generating more business. Makes sense but that is the business model and anyone going into the position should know this day 1 so there is no surprise. Salary is low. They say that you will "double to triple" your base in commissions but I think the max is to double your base (all-in) so that at the end of the year if your base is $55k, you end up at $110k. For the hours worked, there should be more upside, especially after 2-3 years of working there. If the analyst potential was closer to $200-250k, I could see less turnover.