Jefferies’ ex-head of French investment banking says get ready to quit

If you’re a freshly promoted managing director (MD) in an investment bank, you’re probably not thinking about when to quit your job. Jefferies’ former head of French investment banking, however, thinks you should be.

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Jean-Phillipe Verdier spent more than two decades in London’s investment banking world, joining BNP Paribas before bouncing from there to Deutsche Bank, Greenhill, and Jefferies (where he was at one point head of French investment banking). Verdier eventually left Jefferies in 2016 to start his own boutique bank, Verdier & Co..

Speaking to Lazo Cetnik of Pretraga Partners on the Merger Talks Podcast, Verdier said that one of the key traits for a newly-promoted senior banker, aside from the usual – hard work, networking, and open-mindedness – is being able to “jump ship”. You should ask yourself: “do I have the guts, do I have the profile, to rewind and go for a different adventure?”

Verdier admitted that that train of thought isn’t for everybody. “For younger bankers – VPs, directors, or even MDs, it’s for you to find the golden nugget that will work for you.” To Verdier, that means “the right job, or the right firm, or the right team, or the right client.”

Aside from jumping ship, Verdier called hard work the “starting point” of a banker’s skill set, next to perseverance, resilience, agility, and of course, networking.

To Verdier, networking is a critical part of a banker’s development. “Networking can sometimes have a sense of negativity. This is absolutely not the case,” Verdier explained. “Networking is about being interested in somebody else. It’s about listening. It’s about trying to find connections.”

It’s also not an art that necessarily pays immediate dividends. “It’s amazing, down the road, the opportunities that it can bring,” Verdier said. “Most of the time, you don’t see them coming. It’s only because you’ve planted the seeds, and you’ve been nurturing them, that they do come.” 

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