Pros
A very well managed, cost-conscious, and lean organization with a strong founder and a solid, experienced research director. With 100 employees, it is very flat. Impressive reputation for quality research. It is top-10 ranked in the Institutional Investor firm rankings. Many of the brightest minds on the sell-side work there. They are also very nice people. Wolfe has been consistently profitable. For a small shop, the compensation may surprise you. Meritocratic culture. Persistence and hard work are valued. You are only entitled to what you produce.
Cons
This place is developing a somewhat negative reputation for being a "sweat shop" for lack of a better term. You must be willing to work very very hard, which means long days and weekends. The culture frowns on anything less. If you are in a big shop and thinking of taking the plunge here, you'll find the small size and lean operation means that you'll be doing more with less. When it comes to publishing reports, for example, the process is very manual and can be (is) a time-killer. Wolfe sales force does a good job of understanding the research product. The firm has grown a lot recently. There is a concern that with more analysts with new industry coverage joining, the more competition there will be for salesforce's mindshare. The firm's roots have been in transportation research (trucking, rails, etc) and some people here feel that the salesforce favors/leans on/has comfort with that. Wolfe will likely need to beef up its salesforce / distribution capabilities to accommodate new analysts. This is an observation I picked up from the buy-side. Wolfe has grown rapidly this year. It can afford to cherry-pick the best minds that are fleeing the seismic calamity known as Wall Street. There is a concern the firm might outrun its headlights, which I certainly hope isn't the case, of course. On paper, Wolfe has a program called "rising stars" to groom junior analysts into publishing senior analysts. Certainly, the mentorship is there along with a limited track record (the firm is about 8 years old). With the reality of sell-side research and cash equities crashing around us, this may be tested, given the exigencies of the business. There isn't much inter-team camaraderie here. Your nose is to the grind, as it were. No time for socializing. People are very nice here, but it's uncommon to see people interacting outside of their research teams. The NYC office is small, increasingly crowded (2 or more typically share an office), and uninspiring. Insiders know the bathroom situation in NYC is becoming untenable.
