• “TPH’s culture is unique—it’s such a great environment to work in. Everyone is very helpful and fun to be around, which makes a huge difference, especially working the hours that we do. The hours can be pretty tough. However, that’s the case with most investment banks.”
• “TPH’s culture is truly unique and is a differentiating characteristic of the firm. The tone of the culture is set by the chairman and CEO but is carefully managed and supported by all ranks at TPH. TPH’s management genuinely cares about each employee. TPH provides each employee with the critical training tools and mentoring that allows for career development and advancement within the firm.”
• “Culture and people are fantastic. I get along very well with my senior and junior coworkers. I wouldn't want to do investment banking anywhere else as a result. That helps make the long hours tolerable. But hours can be very intense. Based on my understanding, they aren’t the worst in class, but they are tough.”
• “The firm cares about its people and works to be flexible to our needs. The hard part is that our business is client-driven, and clients can be unpredictable and demanding in our business, which of necessity infringes upon personal time. That said, the firm does everything it can to help the team manage those demands.”

• “The salary is what makes the long hours worth it. We’re paid well because the firm values what the employees bring to the firm, even at the analyst level. The company also wants to encourage employees to put money away for retirement by matching a percentage for 401(k)s. They also put a large emphasis on retirement planning when first joining. Also, being able to have top-notch healthcare, with dental and eye coverage is a positive. The firm made sure HR went over in detail the different options and what might be best. They were able to explain it out to someone who had never had to choose insurance. One downside of working at TPH is holidays can be hard to take. With deals constantly being worked on, it’s hard to solidify time off because a major project might come up that requires your attention. This can make it hard to try and plan getaways, especially with access to WFH (even prior to Covid).”
• “Best parts: all-cash bonus, flexible hours, focus on using vacation time as much as possible, flexibility when having children, health care, and telecommuting optionality. Worst parts: company discounts and parking reimbursement.”
• “The base salary and bonus at TPH is excellent. The high level of compensation makes me and my work feel genuinely appreciated. The worst part is that there is no on-site or off-site child care offered.”
• “The compensation at TPH tends to be team-based. We win as a team and lose as a team. For some people, that approach fits; for others, it would not fit. The fact that TPH focuses on retaining a high quality group of motivated people is a large part of the benefit of working at the firm—along with that, the compensation can be attractive.”

• “One of the best perks of working at TPH is you gain knowledge across multiple sectors. They don’t pigeon-hole you into a specific focus or area. They allow for opportunities to work with different team groups and ensure employees are constantly improving their own value. One of the cons to me would be there isn’t much emphasis on how skills could translate outside of TPH, in case the time was right to part ways.”
• “Firm is very focused on analysts completing their two years, but very eager to help wherever they want to go after. About half of every analyst class goes to NY energy PE, and the remaining half split between Houston/Dallas energy PE or non-energy PE and staying on to become an associate.”
• “We’re not very large, so the opportunity to work in foreign offices is limited. Essentially, London, Calgary, and maybe the Middle East. That said, the firm is very flexible in allowing folks to work in different groups and tries to allow for transfers.”
• “Mentorship opportunities are excellent. Outward-facing exposure at all levels and advanced responsibilities result in rapid growth. There are times you may be thrust into forward positions with little direction and expected to operate above your current experience level.”
• “The good news is the job itself provides endless development opportunities—only limitation is your own commitment and knowledge. And I find we have a very collegiate atmosphere—good people interested in seeing each other succeed. An area for improvement is transparency and clear direction and guidance about how to develop and progress throughout the organization.”

• “We have annual women’s conferences and parent company sponsored SPAC for women-led businesses. We have many high-ranking women in the company, but frankly we need more (everyone does). We also have good racial diversity, but this is another area in which all investment banks need to improve as well.”
• “More attention has been given to diversity as a result of recent events in the country. We also have a large effort in energy technology to help up-and-coming technologies improve the industry (cleaner, more efficient). Gender diversity at higher levels is almost nonexistent. That may change with some of the juniors rising up, but we need to do a better job of retaining women and getting women in senior positions. Diversity in race at senior levels is also lacking.”
• “TPH is always looking for a way to give back to the community. Whether it’s working with Habitat for Humanity on a Saturday or collecting winter jackets and coats around the Holidays to donate, TPH is constantly presenting ways for employees to give back. Since we’re fortunate enough to be able to give back, the firm makes it an emphasis throughout the year. I believe our firm is very inclusive to all people regardless of backgrounds, ethnicity, etc. I know the firm is quite progressive and prides itself on that fact. However, like many other banks, the amount of diversity at the upper levels can be limited at times. While there’s no judgement or bias when hiring or looking for new candidates, it seems like there’s room to improve in the diversity category. Director level and above is mostly made up of white males. While this is not inherently an issue, it’s hard to say you’re diverse when most of upper roles are not.”
• “Our firm is very community-focused. In Houston, where we’ve faced a few natural disasters around flooding and hurricanes, the firm enables employees to be in the community, finding ways to make a difference, whether organizing boats to rescue flooded victims or raising money to help replace losses. In addition, after Hurricane Harvey, the firm had a generous financial support program for our employees directly impacted by flooding.”

• “Maynard Holt (the CEO) is an exceptionally positive and sincere individual. It’s difficult not to feel enthusiastic and fortunate to work at the firm when you see his passion, and how he cares about people both inside and outside of the firm. The largest challenges the firm faces are workload and navigating a leading energy advisory practice during what is increasingly evident to be an energy transition. Positively, the firm is embracing the energy transition, while still focusing efforts on traditional business lines.”
• “When you have a leader like TPH does, you have to feel positive about the future of the firm. Even when we miss out on business, it's not ‘oh, woe is me’ but ‘how can we make sure we don’t miss out on this next time.’ It's pretty incredible that the leadership can constantly be pushing the firm to improve and get better. Also, our leaders actually care about our clients. It's not about us making the most money possible in a deal, it’s about how can we put our clients in a position to better themselves for the future.”
• “TPH is positioned to thrive because we put our clients’ success ahead of our own. This client-first approach continues to yield new and returning business and is one of the best parts of working at TPH. I think our business outlook is positive because our leaders and our firm upholds this important value.”
• “Despite a challenging market backdrop, I think my firm is well-positioned to thrive based on the creativity and intelligence of our senior leadership. Our CEO is incredibly engaging and does a great job of boosting employee morale, which has been suffering due to Covid and the workload thrust upon the junior team. We've responded well to challenges at my firm and are always actively looking for ways to boost client engagement as well as employee morale.”

• “Starting full-time this year, I felt like I was better prepared having done the internship. I learned the company’s protocols (formatting, where to find information, etc.). I also learned so many technical concepts, especially those specific to the energy industry, so I had a better understanding of the type of work I’d be doing full time.”
• “My internship prepared me well for my current position. I was able to work with various members of my team in order to learn the programs and workflows needed in order to be a full-time employee.”
• “My internship prepared me extremely well for my full-time role. Not only did it provide the basic necessary skills that a full-time analyst needs, it also provided me with a base working relationship with my colleagues. And it provided me with a familiarity of the expectations of the senior bankers, which I found very helpful.”
• “Good exposure to financial concepts, strategic industry considerations, and different industry sectors.”

Wellness Efforts

• “TPH takes the wellness of its employees seriously. There are frequent firmwide initiatives to ensure that employee mental and physical health are maintained. Most recently, our firm initiated quiet hours to ensure that analysts and associates have time to disconnect from their phones/email and focus on their personal lives.”
• “The firm has multiple recharge areas, including communal game spaces and rest areas. It has also initiated specified recharge hours during a portion of the weekend, enabling employees to shutoff from email and project work during this period.”
• “Recharge hours (no work/email) Friday p.m. to Saturday midday. Unmind app to monitor mental health. MDs buy-in that the whole Covid issue has been a challenge for everyone.”
• “The seniors in charge generally care about your well-being, and there are efforts made to make this experience as enjoyable as possible for the junior team. However, TPH often has significant deal flow, and it’s a very lean team. The work has to be done, and you're going to work incredibly hard.”

Response to Anti-Racist Protests and BLM Movement

• “It was discussed at townhalls, and speakers were invited to share insights on the topic. We’re also working on ways to improve hiring and support in this area.”
• “TPH is a workplace that wants to be seen as a leader of progression and social awareness. Shortly after the killing of George Floyd, the firm put out a message to all discussing the importance of having the tough discussions around these issues. They wanted to make sure every single member of the firm knew that they take these recent issues very seriously. They want to make sure everyone at TPH is happy, not just at TPH but also in their lives outside of the office. I respect the leadership of the firm for the messaging they’ve relayed over these very difficult times.”
• “A firmwide note was sent regarding the movement. It was nice to see that we’re open to supporting the matter and that the firm’s leadership is taking this seriously.”
• “CEO and sector heads have sent around various memos and made it a priority to discuss these issues as a firm.”

Response to Covid-19

• “People were put first immediately, and every effort was made to help working from home and support mental health.”
• “TPH was very proactive about getting people out of the office and working from home in the beginning of the pandemic. They kept their eye on current events and news in order to gauge when they could start letting us back in. In mid-September, they announced that we could go back on assigned days, but it’s all been completely optional and no one’s been forced to go back in. I think something TPH did really well was focusing on the fact that the pandemic has affected mental health, and they’ve done as much as they can to keep everyone feeling good while working from home. A downside was that hours got really bad during the early months of the pandemic, but the firm implemented protected hours to help junior life a bit. The response to the pandemic really couldn’t have been better in my opinion.”
• “The company has put employee mental and physical health first, full stop. Our IT team has kept us running remotely without a hiccup, including closing multiple large, complex deals fully remotely. We’re now working on re-populating our offices but doing it slowly and safely, while keeping it completely voluntary. We've also partnered with other firms to provide hand sanitizer, etc.”
• “TPH makes it known they care about all employees’ health and safety and that comes first. Management has been extremely transparent about how they think it’s best to handle the pandemic and what they’re trying to work through it. They have an open line of communication with all employees where everyone feels able to speak up. They support working from home and other obligations that arise due to family or Covid issues. Very positive overall.”