How to Apply to Lazard Frères

9 min read Last updated April 20, 2026 1 open positions
Blake Crosley
Blake Crosley Researched using publicly available information, hiring data, and ATS analysis.

Key Takeaways

  • Lazard is an elite, independent advisory and asset management firm; its competitive advantage is conflict-free advice from senior bankers, not balance-sheet capital or product cross-sell.
  • The firm runs lean — roughly 3,100 to 3,300 employees globally — which means juniors get unusual responsibility and exposure to senior partners and clients far earlier than at larger banks.
  • Restructuring is a flagship franchise alongside M&A; if distressed, credit, or sovereign workouts interest you, Lazard is among the very top destinations in the world.
  • Recruiting is concentrated at target schools, but networking, alumni outreach, and a clearly articulated reason for choosing Lazard specifically matter as much as pedigree.
  • Resumes should be one page, technically explicit, quantified where possible, and tailored to the specific group (M&A, restructuring, or Asset Management).
  • Interviews are technically rigorous and intellectually probing; expect detailed accounting, valuation, LBO, and group-specific questions alongside searching behavioral conversations.
  • Languages and global mobility are genuine differentiators given Lazard's large European and emerging markets footprint.
  • Compensation is competitive with bulge bracket peers, and exit opportunities into private equity, hedge funds, growth equity, and corporate development are excellent.
  • Cultural fit emphasizes intellectual humility, ownership, and durability under pressure; arrogance and rehearsed perfection are screened out, while genuine curiosity and composure are rewarded.

About Lazard Frères

Lazard Ltd is one of the world's preeminent financial advisory and asset management firms, with a heritage stretching back to 1848 when the Lazard brothers founded a dry goods business in New Orleans that quickly evolved into a banking and foreign exchange operation. Today Lazard operates from headquarters in New York City and Paris, with a presence in approximately 25 to 30 cities across more than 20 countries, employing roughly 3,100 to 3,300 professionals worldwide. The firm is publicly traded on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker LAZ and is organized into two principal business segments: Financial Advisory and Asset Management. The Financial Advisory business is widely regarded as one of the world's elite mergers and acquisitions practices, and Lazard is the global leader in sovereign and corporate restructuring, having advised on many of the largest and most complex bankruptcies and sovereign debt workouts in modern financial history. The firm also provides capital advisory, shareholder advisory, geopolitical advisory, and capital structure services. Lazard Asset Management, the firm's investment business, manages approximately 240 billion dollars in assets across global, regional, and thematic equity and fixed income strategies for institutional and private clients. What distinguishes Lazard from bulge bracket investment banks is its independent, advice-only model: Lazard takes no proprietary trading positions, underwrites no securities, and lends no balance sheet capital, allowing it to offer conflict-free counsel to boards, governments, and management teams. In France, where the firm has operated since 1854, it is known as Lazard Freres and is regarded as one of the most prestigious banques d'affaires in Europe. Lazard's culture is intellectual, partner-driven, lean, and intensely focused on senior banker engagement with clients. The firm has long served as a training ground for some of the most influential figures in global finance, including Felix Rohatyn, Bruce Wasserstein, and Ken Jacobs, and continues to attract candidates who want exposure to landmark transactions in a small-team, high-responsibility environment rather than the larger industrial banking model.

Application Process

  1. 1
    Search and apply directly through the Lazard careers portal at lazard

    Search and apply directly through the Lazard careers portal at lazard.com/careers, which is powered by an Oracle HCM/Taleo applicant tracking system; create an account, complete the profile, and upload a tailored resume and cover letter as a single PDF when possible.

  2. 2
    For undergraduate, MBA, and lateral campus recruiting, monitor your university c

    For undergraduate, MBA, and lateral campus recruiting, monitor your university career services calendar; Lazard runs structured on-campus recruiting at target schools in the US (Wharton, Harvard, Princeton, Yale, Columbia, Stern, Booth, etc.) and in Europe (HEC Paris, ESSEC, Oxford, Cambridge, LSE, Bocconi).

  3. 3
    Networking matters significantly at Lazard given the firm's small size; reach ou

    Networking matters significantly at Lazard given the firm's small size; reach out to alumni and current bankers via LinkedIn for informational coffee chats well before applications open, and reference those conversations in cover letters where appropriate.

  4. 4
    Expect a HireVue or similar one-way video interview as a screening step for anal

    Expect a HireVue or similar one-way video interview as a screening step for analyst and associate roles, often combining behavioral questions with brief technical or case prompts.

  5. 5
    Successful candidates progress to a first-round interview (typically two or thre

    Successful candidates progress to a first-round interview (typically two or three bankers, mixed behavioral and technical), then a Superday or final round at a Lazard office with five to eight back-to-back interviews including Managing Directors and senior Vice Presidents.

  6. 6
    Restructuring and Asset Management tracks have separate processes; restructuring

    Restructuring and Asset Management tracks have separate processes; restructuring places heavy emphasis on credit, distressed, and capital structure technicals, while Asset Management interviews probe markets knowledge, investment philosophy, and stock pitches.

  7. 7
    Offers move quickly after Superdays

    Offers move quickly after Superdays — sometimes within 24 to 72 hours — and candidates are typically given a short window (one to two weeks) to decide; references and background checks follow acceptance.

Resume Tips for Lazard Frères

recommended

Keep it to one page for analyst, associate, and most lateral hires below MD; Laz

Keep it to one page for analyst, associate, and most lateral hires below MD; Lazard bankers are accustomed to scanning hundreds of CVs and a second page rarely helps unless you are a senior lateral with a substantial deal sheet.

recommended

Lead with quantified deal experience or transaction-relevant work: announced ent

Lead with quantified deal experience or transaction-relevant work: announced enterprise value, your specific role on the team, and the analytical contribution you made (DCF, LBO, accretion/dilution, fairness opinion support, etc.).

recommended

Use the standard investment banking resume format favored by US and European IBD

Use the standard investment banking resume format favored by US and European IBD recruiting: Education at top, then Experience reverse-chronological, then Leadership/Activities, then Skills/Interests; do not use photos for US applications, but photos are conventional in France.

recommended

Demonstrate technical fluency by listing concrete modeling experience and Excel,

Demonstrate technical fluency by listing concrete modeling experience and Excel, Capital IQ, FactSet, Bloomberg, and PitchBook proficiency; restructuring candidates should explicitly call out distressed credit, 13-week cash flow modeling, or DIP financing exposure.

recommended

Show academic excellence: include GPA if 3

Show academic excellence: include GPA if 3.5 or higher (3.7+ is the implicit bar at Lazard), SAT/ACT or A-Level/Bac results for early-career candidates, and any quantitative coursework or competitions (Putnam, IMO, CFA progress).

recommended

Emphasize languages — Lazard is genuinely global, and fluency in French, German,

Emphasize languages — Lazard is genuinely global, and fluency in French, German, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, Mandarin, Arabic, or Japanese is a real differentiator, especially for European and EMEA roles.

recommended

Highlight evidence of intellectual depth and leadership outside finance: researc

Highlight evidence of intellectual depth and leadership outside finance: research publications, varsity athletics, founding a club, military service, or competitive achievements signal the resilience and ownership the firm prizes.

recommended

Tailor the resume per group: M&A applicants should foreground deal experience, r

Tailor the resume per group: M&A applicants should foreground deal experience, restructuring applicants should foreground credit/distressed work, and Asset Management applicants should foreground investment research, stock pitches, and any portfolio management or investment club leadership.

ATS System: Oracle HCM (Taleo)

Lazard runs its global careers portal on Oracle's HCM Cloud / Taleo applicant tracking system, the same enterprise platform used by many large financial institutions. Postings are structured, parsed for keywords, and routed to recruiters by group and geography. The system parses uploaded resumes into structured fields (work history, education, skills) and matches them against job-specific criteria; clean formatting, standard section headers, and explicit keyword inclusion (matching the language of the posting) materially improve parse accuracy and recruiter visibility.

  • Submit your resume as a clean, single-column PDF; avoid tables, multi-column layouts, headers/footers with critical information, and graphical elements that Taleo's parser frequently mangles.
  • Use standard section headers (Education, Experience, Skills, Languages) and conventional date formats (Month Year - Month Year) so the parser populates structured fields correctly.
  • Mirror the exact language of the job posting where it is honest to do so — if the role calls for 'merger and acquisition advisory' or 'distressed restructuring', use those phrases verbatim in your resume bullets.
  • Complete every optional profile field on the careers portal, including languages, certifications, and work authorization status; recruiters filter on these fields and incomplete profiles fall to the bottom of the queue.
  • Apply once per role you are genuinely qualified for; duplicate applications across multiple positions in the same office and group can flag your file and irritate recruiters.
  • Save your candidate profile and check the portal regularly for status updates; Taleo notifications occasionally land in spam, and Lazard recruiters move fast once a candidate is shortlisted.

Complete Oracle HCM (Taleo) Resume Guide →

Interview Culture

Lazard's interview process is widely regarded as one of the most rigorous and intellectually demanding on Wall Street, reflecting the firm's senior-banker, advice-only culture where every junior hire is expected to operate close to the partners from day one. Candidates should prepare for a process that is technically thorough, behaviorally probing, and noticeably more conversational than at larger bulge bracket banks. First-round interviews typically pair you with one or two bankers and run 30 to 45 minutes, with a roughly even mix of fit questions, walk-me-through-your-resume probing, and core technical content: accounting (the three-statement walk-through is essentially mandatory), valuation (DCF, comparable companies, precedent transactions, LBO mechanics), and basic M&A concepts such as accretion/dilution, synergies, and deal structure. Restructuring candidates face an additional layer of distressed and credit technicals — covenant analysis, waterfall modeling, fulcrum security identification, Chapter 11 versus out-of-court considerations, and the difference between a 363 sale and a plan of reorganization. Asset Management interviews lean heavily on a polished stock pitch, market views, valuation frameworks, and a clear articulation of personal investment philosophy. Superdays in New York, London, or Paris are intense: five to eight back-to-back interviews, often including at least one Managing Director and frequently a senior partner. Behavioral questions probe genuine intellectual curiosity, how you think under pressure, why Lazard specifically (the answer cannot simply be M&A — you must articulate why the independent advisory model and the firm's restructuring or sovereign work appeals to you), and how you handle ambiguity and disagreement. Lazard bankers tend to be direct, occasionally Socratic, and unafraid to push back on weak reasoning; demonstrating composure, honest uncertainty, and the ability to update your view in real time is far more impressive than rehearsed perfection. Dress is conservative business formal — dark suit, white or pale blue shirt, conservative tie, polished shoes — and arrive early, having researched the specific group, recent deals, and the bankers you will meet. The firm values intellectual humility paired with quiet confidence; arrogance and over-rehearsed answers are filtered out quickly.

What Lazard Frères Looks For

  • Demonstrated intellectual horsepower: top academic record from a target school, evidence of analytical depth, and the ability to think through novel problems in real time during interviews rather than reciting memorized frameworks.
  • Genuine commitment to the independent advisory model: candidates who can articulate why Lazard's conflict-free, senior-banker-led approach matters more to them than a balance-sheet bank's product breadth.
  • Modeling and technical fluency appropriate to the role: clean accounting, valuation, and M&A mechanics for IBD; distressed and credit fluency for restructuring; security selection and portfolio construction reasoning for Asset Management.
  • Maturity, professionalism, and client-readiness; because teams are lean and partners staff juniors directly, even analysts are expected to be comfortable speaking with senior client personnel within months of starting.
  • Resilience and stamina: Lazard hours are bulge-bracket comparable (often 80 to 100 hours per week in busy periods for junior bankers), and the firm screens hard for evidence you have endured demanding environments without burning out.
  • Cultural humility and team orientation: Lazard prizes low-ego operators who give credit, take ownership of mistakes, and can work effectively across the firm's many small offices and senior-driven teams.
  • Global perspective and language skills: especially valued for European, Latin American, Middle Eastern, and Asian roles, where multilingual fluency and cross-border deal interest open doors that domestic-only candidates cannot reach.
  • A coherent narrative for why finance, why advisory, why this group at Lazard now; the firm penalizes generic answers and rewards candidates who have done the homework on specific deals, partners, and sector dynamics.

Frequently Asked Questions

What GPA do I need to get an interview at Lazard?
Lazard does not publish a hard cutoff, but the practical bar at top US programs is a 3.7 or higher unweighted GPA, with most successful analyst hires landing between 3.7 and 3.95. Candidates below 3.5 will need very strong offsetting credentials such as a target-school name, prior IBD or PE internship, demonstrably strong technicals, or a compelling personal story. In Europe, the equivalent is a First-Class Honours degree, a top-decile Grandes Ecoles ranking, or an equivalent distinction.
Does Lazard recruit only from Ivy League and equivalent schools?
Lazard concentrates on-campus recruiting at a defined target list (Wharton, Harvard, Princeton, Yale, Columbia, NYU Stern, Chicago Booth, MIT, Stanford, Duke, Georgetown, and a few others in the US; HEC, ESSEC, Oxford, Cambridge, LSE, Imperial, Bocconi in Europe), but they regularly hire from non-target schools through diversity programs, networking, and lateral pipelines. If you are at a non-target, networking and a perfect technical foundation are essentially mandatory.
How hard are the technical interviews at Lazard?
Harder than the median bulge bracket bank but not the absolute hardest on the Street. Expect to be asked to walk through the three financial statements when one line item changes, build out a DCF and LBO from memory at a conceptual level, discuss WACC and terminal value mechanics, and explain accretion/dilution math. Restructuring interviews go deeper into credit, covenants, fulcrum security analysis, and Chapter 11 procedure. The bar is fluency, not memorization — they will follow up to see if you actually understand.
What is a Lazard Superday like?
A Superday at Lazard typically involves five to eight back-to-back 30-minute interviews at a Lazard office (often Rockefeller Center in New York, or the Paris or London office), with a mix of analysts, associates, vice presidents, and at least one managing director. Sessions alternate between technical and behavioral, lunch may be included with junior bankers, and decisions are usually communicated within 24 to 72 hours.
Does Lazard hire experienced lateral candidates?
Yes. Lazard actively recruits laterals at the associate, vice president, director, and managing director levels, particularly bankers with strong sector or product specialization (healthcare, technology, financial sponsors, restructuring) and senior bankers with portable client relationships. Lateral processes are typically driven by group heads and a small number of internal recruiters or trusted external search firms; the bar on technical and cultural fit is at least as high as for campus hires.
What is the difference between Lazard M&A and Lazard Restructuring as a career path?
M&A bankers advise on buy-side, sell-side, and merger transactions across sectors, focusing on valuation, deal structuring, and process management. Restructuring bankers advise debtors, creditors, and other stakeholders in distressed situations including in-court (Chapter 11) and out-of-court workouts, sovereign debt restructurings, and liability management. Restructuring requires deep credit, capital structure, and bankruptcy law fluency, tends to be counter-cyclical to M&A, and offers exit opportunities into distressed hedge funds and special situations investing.
How long does the Lazard hiring process take from application to offer?
For campus recruiting, the cycle from application to offer typically runs four to eight weeks, with HireVue screening, first-round interviews, and Superdays compressed into that window. Lateral processes can run anywhere from three weeks for urgent backfills to several months for senior or specialized hires. Offers, once extended, usually require a decision within one to two weeks.
Does Lazard sponsor work visas?
Yes, Lazard sponsors work visas for full-time hires in markets where it operates, including H-1B in the United States, Tier 2/Skilled Worker visas in the UK, and equivalent permits in France, Germany, and other EU countries. Internship sponsorship is more limited and country-specific; check the specific posting for details and apply with realistic awareness of country lottery odds and timing.
What is compensation like at Lazard for analysts and associates?
Lazard pays at or near the top of the Street for junior bankers. First-year analyst total compensation in New York typically ranges from approximately 165,000 to 200,000 USD all-in (base plus bonus), and first-year associate total compensation typically ranges from approximately 275,000 to 400,000 USD all-in, with significant year-over-year increases through the analyst and associate programs. Numbers vary by year, market, and group; restructuring bonuses can outperform M&A in distressed cycles.
What are common exit opportunities for Lazard analysts?
Lazard analysts have among the strongest exit options on the Street. Common destinations include large-cap and mid-market private equity (KKR, Blackstone, Apollo, Carlyle, Bain Capital, TPG, and many sector-focused funds), distressed and credit hedge funds (especially for restructuring alums), growth equity, corporate development at major operating companies, MBA programs at top business schools, and roles at family offices or sovereign wealth funds.

Open Positions

Lazard Frères currently has 1 open positions.

Check Your Resume Before Applying → View 1 open positions at Lazard Frères

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