Houlihan Lokey |

In 2018, I spent 10 weeks on Houlihan Lokey’s summer internship programme before converting to become a first year Financial Analyst.

I’d already completed a variety of internships elsewhere, but during my internship at Houlihan Lokey I was actively involved in real projects and able to make a meaningful contribution, which I found particularly rewarding.

The size of the deal teams – often just three or four people – meant that I never felt lost within the organisation. There’s certainly a very steep learning curve at the start of your career, but equally it means that you get real responsibility from early on, and this is part of what makes the job so rewarding as a junior.

In the Corporate Finance team, we undertake a wide range of activities involved in executing buy- and sell-side M&A transactions, working directly with talented entrepreneurs and companies to understand their business models and the value they provide to their clients.

There is a real collegial, friendly atmosphere throughout the firm – you always feel supported and valued as an important part of the team. There’s no face-time culture – you’re expected to work hard, but you’re also encouraged to have fun when you can, and the firm puts real emphasis on making sure you can build and maintain that balance.

Job Title: Financial Analyst, Corporate Finance

Education: BSc—Economics—University of Exeter

What stood out to you about Houlihan Lokey?

What stood out about Houlihan Lokey was their middle market coverage and their leading sector knowledge. I don’t think there are many other mid-market banks across Europe and the US which have the same level of depth of coverage of the financial sponsor space.

The second thing was how entrepreneurial the culture is. This is defined by how lean some of the deal teams are and how much exposure you can get from early on. You can really drive your career progression and what they preach is actually what they practise.

Another element of the culture which stands out to me is the level of responsibility that you’re given from pretty early on. You will quickly be hands-on with whatever you’re working on. Equally, you’re given a lot of guidance. You’re never left in the dark and you can reach out to someone senior on the team at any stage and they will be there with a helping hand.

Houlihan Lokey is very team-focused. Everything gets done efficiently, I would say, and there’s a lot of cross-team collaboration which is so important in the financial sector where you need to rely on different teams. It’s great! It makes the job a lot easier.

How did you make your application stand out?

One of the things I did was read about the company and the team. The Houlihan website is a great source of knowledge and you can very quickly learn about the recent deals which have closed and the initiatives going on in the firm and where the firm is headed. With social media sites like LinkedIn, there are lots of great ways to get involved in what’s going on.

If you’re interested in working for Houlihan, keep up to date with the deals which have closed and reach out to people when there are networking events and don’t be shy to ask questions. This is a great way to figure out if it’s a good fit for you and to learn more about the team and culture.

What part of the application process did you find the most challenging?

When I applied to Houlihan, I had a variety of interviews and an assessment centre. The assessment centre had a variety of different tasks that allowed you to interact with a variety of people across the bank. One of the hardest parts I found was a case study exercise within a particular area of expertise which I wasn’t necessarily comfortable with. I was given a task to read about a topic for 15 minutes and present information and data to three sector specialists. They then posed challenging questions. This tested my ability to analyse the data I had read and also make judgements about where I think trends are heading. Although I think the case study session is structured a bit differently now.

If you’re going through the assessment centre, it’s really important to take a pause and consider the information. It’s very easy to get bogged down with the numbers, but it’s more important to understand the bigger picture and effectively communicate this to the people assessing you. Structure your thoughts with the underlying data and make sure you approach your response in a structured way.

Did you get any feedback in the past that helped you with your application?

I was fortunate enough to go to university in London, so I had the chance to go to a variety of networking events to hear industry speakers and attend panels. Going to these events really opened my mind to what employers are looking for. One piece of advice I received was to tailor my application to the strengths of the company and why I would be a good fit for the company. You can work out these cultural elements by going to events run by organisations and speaking to people who are working there.

What top three tips would you give to students looking to follow in your footsteps?

1. Effectively network. Attend networking events and ask silly questions. It’s only at these events that you can get the genuine responses and understand what the company’s looking for.
2. Stay topical. Make sure you’re reading different news sources and keeping up with industry updates. This could just be 5 or 10 minutes a day which will really help you build up your knowledge of the industry organically and help you come across as knowledgeable when you speak to an industry expert.
3. Be proactive. This is in your applications, but also speaking to people. Reach out on LinkedIn and enhance your chances of securing a role.

Please tell us a little about yourself and your role

My name is Alexander van Aubel and I’m an Associate in Houlihan Lokey’s Business Services M&A Advisory team in London. I joined HL in early 2019 after graduating from university and a good bit of travelling. I focus on Buy- and Sellside M&A advisory across various Business Services sub-sectors like Testing, Inspection and Certification (TIC), Healthcare Services, Environmental Services, and Equipment-as-a-Service.

What is the difference between an Analyst and an Associate?

The main differences are the amount of responsibility that you have, client interaction and strategic thinking you’re required to do. Don’t get me wrong, as an analyst you’ll have a good bit of responsibility and you’ll see loads clients, but full responsibility for the work you do will be with the Associate or Vice President you’re working with. They will also lead the interaction with the client. As an Associate you start to get full responsibility for certain workstreams (like financial models and drafting of certain marketing materials like the teaser and Information Memorandum) and are expected to start thinking about the strategy behind the M&A process you’re running. Although as an analyst you can definitely distinguish yourself from your peers by also giving process strategy some thought and making recommendations about this to your Associate.

What do you enjoy most about working at Houlihan Lokey?

Definitely the colleagues and clients I work with. There’s a lot of young, like-minded people in my team that I really enjoy working and hanging out with. And then there’s a lot of more senior people with loads of experience in my team as well that I can learn a lot from. In terms of clients, I think that one of the big upsides from working in M&A as a junior is that you get to work with some very interesting entrepreneurs and management teams from the outset. I don’t think there’s many jobs where you work with such versatile and impressive clients when you start working as in M&A. Over the past couple of years I’ve had the pleasure of working with some very interesting clients. Like last summer, when we advised on the sale of a company in the TIC space. The two founders of that business managed to grow it from £0 to £300 million of revenue in 3 years! It was really interesting to hear their stories and be part of their journey.

What would be your career highlight so far?

The deal in the TIC space we did last year that I mentioned above. We worked really hard as a team to get that one done and managed to get a great outcome for our client. We then celebrated closing the deal with a trip to Morocco!

Do you have any advice for someone who is considering applying?

Make sure that you get as much as you can out of your internship, it’s really important that you know what a job entails before you accept one. During your internship ask as many questions as you can and also try to work with as many different people as possible. That way you can really get a feel for the work and whether you’ll enjoy doing it full time.