- The culture was in my opinion, very pretentious (which is surprising because well... its D&P).
- Expect a bonus that is only 10-20% of what your peers would be getting at top MM firms and bulges... if they screw you more beyond that, it may be close to 5% of what others are receiving.
- No structure. The training in the boonies of Illinois was a JOKE. I learned nothing sitting with my peers in the Tax, Valuation, Dispute Consulting, Transfer Pricing... etc. How do they expect to properly train employees in the IB practice when we have 2 weeks to learn about D&P's laundry list of other practices...
- You have to study for the series on your own WHILE WORKING 100+ hour weeks. That's right. D&P offers ZERO training or separate time for you to prep for your series exam so expect to be cramming/extremely tired your first 3 months on the job studying and working simultaneously. You have to take both the series 79 and 63 and after a few more months... the series 7 as well.
- If you want to work on M&A, this is not the right firm. If you want to scrub comps, work on Salesforce (looking up contact information and data entry) and pitch all day and all night, this will be the right firm for you.
- Aside from training being unstructured, the analyst program itself is unstructured, as well as, the firm. Because the firm is trying to compete with bigger banks, a lot of investment is going into building an FSG practice. What does that mean for analysts? SALESFORCE ALL DAY, ALL NIGHT. Expect to become an expert at looking up addresses, phone numbers, websites, port cos, etc. It will make you question why you went to a university in the first place.
- Have you ever heard about a bank that offers $25 of dinner meal reimbursements but yells at you for eating $20-25 meals? I didn't until I worked at D&P. I can't count how many times MDs have pulled me into their office because my meals were "too expensive." Maybe they should reconsider working me to the ground before complaining to me about my dinner expenses.
- If you want to work yourself to the ground, while not getting paid appropriately for the hours and having to be cognizant about your dinner expenses at chipotle AND have no exit opps when you try to leave, by all means-- this may be the place for you!
