The Introductory Training Program
Our financial analysts work in small, client focused teams within the Corporate Finance and M&A disciplines devoted to helping Thomas Weisel Partners' clients acheive their financial and strategic objectives. These disciplines include the following products and services.

While most training is provided on the job, Thomas Weisel Partners financial analysts complete an intensive three-week introductory program upon joining the firm. This program focuses on helping analysts build a strong working knowledge of financial accounting and corporate finance and the Firm’s products and services. This program takes place at the Firm’s headquarters in San Francisco and is designed to allow new employees to develop strong bonds with their classmates as well as with professionals across all areas of the Firm.

The first week of the program is devoted to financial accounting and is taught by a graduate level business school professor. The final two weeks of the training program are taught by senior investment bankers in their various areas of product expertise. These sessions are focused on research, valuation and other analytical methodologies used for structuring and executing the Firm’s core banking products: Initial Public Offerings (IPOs), Follow-On and Convertible Offerings, PIPEs/Registered Direct Financings, Private Placements and Mergers & Acquisitions (M&A).

To complement the formal classroom presentations, new analysts and associates work in teams to respond to typical client requests, including a mock IPO pitch and a mock M&A fairness opinion. As part of the IPO pitch assignment, each team analyzes a company’s financial prospects for an IPO and presents their “pitch” and recommendation to a mock board of directors. For the M&A fairness opinion, trainees must provide a formal opinion to a mock board of directors that justifies the fairness of a proposed M&A transaction to shareholders. These exercises are highly effective in preparing the new class for future assignments.

The “Real” Training Program:
The heart of Thomas Weisel Partners’ financial analyst training program truly begins once the introductory training program concludes. A large majority of Thomas Weisel Partners senior bankers started their careers as investment banking analysts and believe that the “real” training occurs on the job over the entire span of these “apprentice years” in the analyst role. Senior bankers take pride in training and mentoring analysts on a broad variety of skills including analytics, financial accounting, project management, team management, client management and career management. Analysts are encouraged to optimize their years as analysts to expand their skill base, work with a variety of professionals and clients and explore potential career interests.

Analysts gain first-hand knowledge of deals from generation to execution. For each transaction successfully completed, a deal memento—known as a tombstone—is created and given to each member of the deal team. Most investment bankers might agree that quality and level of one’s training can be measured by the number of tombstones a banker has collected. In 2006, Thomas Weisel Partners’ analysts closed or announced an average of 4 transactions each, which we believe to be one of the highest ratios of closed transactions per analyst on Wall Street.

Periodically, bankers organize lunch time training sessions around a topic, such as a recent transaction, interesting structuring or accounting development. These discussions are focused on the analyst and associate ranks and are often led by their peers who worked on the transaction or developed an expertise on a subject. These “peer-to-peer” sessions provide junior professionals with opportunities to learn from their colleagues as well as a chance to develop critical client presentation skills in a low-risk environment.

Staffing:
New analysts join the Firm as generalists and work with a variety of teams across product and industry groups. This “generalist period”, which lasts about six months, is meant to provide analysts with an opportunity to explore their interests and become acquainted with the various work styles and personalities of teams. During the “generalist” period, analysts are encouraged to pursue their specific interests and are asked to develop team preferences. Ultimately, analysts are assigned to a specific industry or product team. Thomas Weisel Partners’ approach to staffing and team placement is not formulaic and is driven by matching analysts’ preferences with the firm’s needs.

Longer-Term Career Opportunities:
The Thomas Weisel Partners analyst program runs on a two-year cycle with a fiscal year ending in July. New analysts are expected to fulfill a two year commitment. At the end of the first year of the program, analysts are asked to state their interest in pursuing a third year. By the middle of the second fiscal year, selected second year analysts receive offers to continue for a third year. Offers are based on analysts’ performance reviews, team support and stated level of interest.

Thomas Weisel Partners has a history of promoting analysts through the senior professional ranks. On a highly selective basis, some analysts are promoted to associate at the end of their third year.

Thomas Weisel Partners is flexible in working with promoted analysts planning a possible return to business school - even after they have worked as associates for one to two years. Our senior professionals are actively involved in this process by providing business school recommendations and career advice. Given the small size of project teams and the high level of interaction analysts often have with their clients, many Thomas Weisel Partners analysts have had corporate clients provide graduate school recommendations – another factor that distinguishes Thomas Weisel Partners from larger investment banks.

Historically, many analysts have chosen to pursue other employment opportunities after completing the Thomas Weisel Partners Financial Analyst Program, prior to enrolling in a graduate program. Thomas Weisel Partners financial analysts have a strong track record of securing high profile jobs in the private equity, venture capital and corporate communities. In many cases, our partners and senior professionals work closely with graduating analysts to secure post-Thomas Weisel Partners employment. Below are just some of the post-program placements our analysts have gone on to pursue.

Selected Post-Program Placement