Akul Gupta | Moelis & Co

Akul Gupta currently works at Moelis & Company since Dec-18. Prior to joining Moelis, Akul was at Deutsche Bank from 2017 to 2018. Akul holds an undergrad degree in Commerce from Hansraj College, University of Delhi and has finished level 3 of the CFA program. Akul will be sharing his experience from his stint at Moelis focusing on sharing insights about the IB industry in India.

Interview

How did you recruit for this role? What would your advice be for potential candidates aspiring to get here? (recruiting strategy, cycle, process etc.)

While working at Deutsche, I was looking for front office roles at global banks and was interviewing with a couple of firms. Fortunately, that time Moelis was looking out to expand its team and I came to know about the opportunity from a common friend. No particular recruiting agency was involved and the interaction was directly with the company. Process was simple – a couple of telephonic interviews and then a super day with 7-8 interviews.

Advice for potential candidates – IB Interviews are quite focused on technical skills, so please be strong in that domain.

• CFA L2 Corp Fin, FRA and Equity are the most important subjects to look at
• Finish Aswath Damodaran’s book on Valuation
• Read Mint newspaper daily without fail
• Cycle: IB Interviews happen throughout the year so keep preparing and reaching out to people
• Process: Mostly a couple of telephonic rounds followed by a small modelling round and in person interviews

What are the key skills that are required for this role?

• Strong technical skills
• Ability to convert complex texts into simple understandable content
• Drive to work hard – can be 100 hour weeks easily on multiple occasions in a month
• Focus to win everyday and be thick skinned
• Strong hold on Excel and PowerPoint
• Inquisitiveness to learn about new concepts and industry dynamics
• Soft skills and patience – while interacting with clients
• Ability to work in a small team and try and take more work yourself rather than delegating

What is the typical feeder profile (typical previous work experience) for this industry in general and for your firm in particular?

Feeder Profile – Undergrad from Tier 1 college in India (eg. SRCC, Stephens, Hansraj, Hindu, CBS), 95%+ in XII, CA/CFA certification and 1-2 years of global mid-office or domestic front office experience

Is there an education path that is preferred for getting a role in this industry?

IB is a profile which is dominated by post MBA students in India only due to the sheer amount of excess supply vs the demand in the industry. Globally, a B-School is not required to enter into IB, but in India, due to the immense supply, the trend for I-Banks is to hire post MBA students from IIM ABC and FMS. As an undergrad, you can still enter the industry, might take ~1 year more but it is very much possible as multiple people have done it in the past.

What is your total team size and what is the typical team staffing on a case/deal?

• Moelis India has a team of 9 people in total. 2 analysts, 2 associates, 3 EDs and 2 MDs
• Staffing on a deal: 1 ED + 1 associate + 1 analyst. Can also be 1 ED + 1 analyst

What is a typical day at work for you?

• Start at 9:30 AM. Understand what all are the key deliverables for the day, make client calls and brief the ED on the progress on the deal and start working on any urgent deliverable which has to go out
• Break at 1 pm for 15-20 mins for lunch/office chit chat
• Be on calls for 2-3 hours, take down notes and contribute in any possible way
• Work on deals – presentations, models, profiles, investor reach out, deal documentation etc.
• Break at 8 pm for dinner – 30 mins
• Resume work at 8:30 till 12 AM – finish remaining work, send out materials, drop emails to clients/Moelis back office teams on any materials they can prepare. Schedule calls for the next day and block calendars
• Around 12/1 AM – leave from office

What are your key responsibilities and deliverable on a case/deal?

Responsibilities can vary a lot from deal to deal. In a generic sell-side deal, you have to sit with the client (company) and understand the business, create a detailed CIM, model and teaser and then reach out to investors

What is the typical exit that people get from this role?

• Move to another bank (depending on the situation)
• Move to PE (most lucrative exit)
• Move to corporate (most chilled exit)
• Go and pursue MBA (if not done already)

What are the pros and cons about this role?

• Pros: Chance to work with really smart people, flexibility to move to a variety of roles if banking is not your cup of tea, interact with founders/senior people of companies directly and make good money vs peers
• Cons: Long working hours, compromised family time/personal time, health gets compromised if you don’t work out regularly, constantly under pressure from seniors and clients, need to be active 24×7 on mails and calls and no vacations/time off

What are your typical work hours in a week (including weekends)?

Generally, around 80-90 hours per week (including weekends). Might get stretched to 100 hours per week

How do the responsibilities evolve as one grows in this industry into senior roles?

• Initially, as an analyst or an associate, you would be more focused on execution of deals and doing work yourself
• As a VP, you would be focused on staffing of analysts/associates and ensuring all deliverables are being done on time. Also accompany directors to start building relationships
• As an ED/MD, you would be focused on deal origination, meeting clients, getting the deals etc.

What would be your advice for people aspiring for a similar role?

• Please be mentally prepared to pull off the long hours and compromise family time and personal health. Many people discount this factor and only look at the money in this profession. Banking is a high paying job but the pay/hour worked ratio is extremely low
• Go through the resources mentioned above and have strong technical skills
• Be aware of current trends in the stock market, follow one particular industry and know it inside out – companies which operate in the industry, MCaps, valuation multiples, news around that industry, what is the product of that industry, what is the broad future trend etc.
• Network and interact with as many people you can in the industry
• Be keen to work and make an impact in the finance world, in short, be driven
• Work on soft-skills – how to interact with people, listen patiently and respond to questions rather than react