• “PWP has done an incredible job in the work-from-home environment, allowing junior level people to use their free time as needed, even throughout the work day. My group at the firm also has a strict ‘no work on Saturday’ policy that everyone adheres to closely, which also provides an added positive to our quality of life. The worst part of the firm’s quality of life is that Sunday work is generally expected every week, since our lean deal teams put a lot of responsibility on the analysts who are often the only analysts on their respective deal teams.”
• “You do work hard, but that’s more a function of the restructuring business in this market environment. Teams want you to be able to take time away and are supportive when requesting vacation.”
• “Best is that when you do want to take time, the team is very supportive. The downside is that due to the lean nature of the deal teams, it’s often difficult to find enough time you won’t be busy to be able to take a few days off.”
• “The hours are tough, but the firm does a lot to make that better. The culture is very good, and people at least appreciate the hard work that analysts put in. Working from home has blurred the line between a work/life balance.”

• “The firm compensates its employees within the upper quartile of salaries in the industry. The firm also supplies very competitive benefit packages for the employees. Every aspect of compensation is above the industry average.”
• “PWP has one of the highest starting base salaries on Wall Street and provides dinner for any weekend work or work after 7 p.m., even during work from home. PWP also has amazing medical coverage. Other larger firms often allocate money toward gym memberships or entertainment discounts that we don’t have access to.”
• “Compensation for the junior and mid-level is always at the top end of the Street but is never the top of the Street. When you combine that with a good culture, PWP is a pretty attractive place to make a career.”
• “Comp is higher than most investment banks, and perks are great. We were able to keep our meal expense budget during Covid, while many other firms on the Street stopped paying for meals.”

• “The firm provides ongoing training sessions for first-year analysts and associates that prove to be very helpful. Also, the firm actively seeks feedback on its training. Unlike many investment banks, the firm puts high emphasis on retention of junior talent and promoting from within the firm.”
• “The firm is both transparent and supportive with respect to our career development (both internally and outside of the firm). Analysts are encouraged to seek the advice of more senior members of the firm on these matters, and the firm actively internally promotes analysts.”
• “Extensive support from senior bankers and mobility across the firm’s various groups and offices.”
• “Very strong informal mentorship and interest in developing junior and midlevel bankers. Much more priority and focus on this than at my prior firm. I find informal training to be far more important than formal in banking, but we could probably have more formal programs (which is especially hard with Covid, though). I think we’re comparable to my prior firm in formal.”

• “The firm matches charitable donations up to $1,000 total per year. The firm has extensive diversity and racial inclusion training programs.”
• “I know the firm is committed to diversity in many aspects, but rather than simply and only looking at diversity of race, it considers gender, school, background, sexual orientation, and others in its hiring process. Part of why I joined PWP was for its diversity of thought, which draws on its human capital with a variety of backgrounds.”
• “The firm isn’t overly vocal about these issues, but I believe all individuals at the firm whom I’ve worked with are very respectful and engaged with these initiatives.”
• “The firm finally started a D&I initiative. The firm as a whole doesn’t do much philanthropy or make it a core part of the culture.”

• “Our strong restructuring practice is helping support our business performance in the Covid environment. The firm also prioritizes client relationships. As a result, we’ve been able to retain and continue assisting a number of large clients through the pandemic.”
• “I think the firm has a strong business outlook, with a busy restructuring team in down economic cycles as well as a robust M&A practice. Compensation is strong, and, despite WFH, employee morale is positive.”
• “The firm is now poised for growth as we trimmed to our strongest areas of expertise. The firm’s partners are, by requirement, highly esteemed in their fields and have worked on some of the most transformative deals in their industries.”
• “The firm continues to grow year after year, both through new client retention and the opening of new offices globally. I believe the firm is very well situated to be a strong competitor in every industry vertical we’re present in.”

• “Given an incredible amount of responsibility compared to interns at other banks, especially bulge brackets. Majority of work was on live deals and worked very closely with senior people. Worked directly with partners.”
• “The entire office made it very clear that they wanted to help me succeed and would actively reach out to see if I needed any help. I felt that I played a helpful role to my deal teams from day one. The hours during the internship were slightly longer than expected but were manageable.”
• “The best aspect of the internship at PWP was the fact that interns were exposed to a significant amount of live deal experience. Many of us even traveled to client meetings as summer analysts, which is unheard of even at the junior full-time analyst level in investment banking. The exposure that summer analysts get to live transactions and client-facing work is what makes PWP very special. PWP also fosters a strong network of mentors that develop organically and inorganically (assigned mentors) during the internship. Senior level people at the MD and even partner level are more than willing to take time to grab coffee/lunch with you, which is invaluable.”
• “PWP really focused on giving interns real opportunities to work on projects across different verticals. Our staffer took into account our preferences very well. Most importantly, I felt like junior people (analysts and associates) were consistently putting in time to train us, from hosting training sessions to explaining minute things. The firm overall is really invested in junior talent. A few teams in particular felt like a family!”

Response to Anti-Racist Protests and BLM Movement

• “We have internal town halls where these matters are discussed, and our founders have been actively engaged in this dialogue in firm messaging/with members of the firm. I think the firm has done a very good job being open and striking the right tone here.”
• “The firm was great in acknowledging the issue and is taking steps to set a course and measure performance. They aren’t overdoing it, because they’re worried about ‘all talk no action.’ You can tell that they’re sincere in their efforts to address this complex problem.”
• “Strong communication effort and offering of educational resources. I thought the response was positive.”
• “Provided teaching resources and encourages ally-ship from highest levels of firm (Peter Weinberg has spoken to the firm about social justice matters and other pressing topics). Also increased firm matching for charitable donations.”

Response to Covid-19

• “The WFH transition was seamless, and the firm has been very flexible in letting employees decide what they’d like to do and when.”
• “The firm has done a good job transitioning to a work-from-home style of business as well as transitioning to being back in the office. My office provides employees with the option to either work from home or go into the office to work with safety measures in place to ensure employee safety.”
• “Early communication and rapid responsiveness. Beginning in March, all employees have been encouraged to work from home. No indication that any worker will be asked to come back to in-person working until they’re comfortable doing so.”
• “Very quickly set up a work-from-home policy and reimbursed workers for their at-home work setup. The firm had numerous technology applications already in play, including Zoom, LoopUp, Teams, and virtual desktop to make a seamless transition to work from home. No pressure on employees to return to the office.”