Investment Banking
Lazard Application Guide
Elite advisory boutique known for the most complex restructuring and M&A deals globally. Every stage of the process, the questions Lazard actually asks, and the prep that gets candidates through, in one place.
Practise for Lazard
Start practising on Intervyo. Free tools, scored feedback, no payment.
- CV Checker, scored against Lazard
- HireVue practice, AI-scored
- Live AI mock interviews with Vyo
- Psychometric tests in real formats
- Application Tracker
The firm
About Lazard
The business today
Lazard is the world's largest independent advisory firm, built on two businesses: Financial Advisory (M&A, restructuring, capital markets and sovereign advisory) and Lazard Asset Management. In London it sits among the elite boutiques alongside Rothschild, Evercore and PJT, advising boards and governments on the most complex and sensitive situations rather than competing on balance-sheet lending.
What sets Lazard apart is the breadth of its advisory franchise. Its restructuring and liability-management practice is one of the strongest in the market, and its Sovereign Advisory practice, which advises governments and sovereign entities on debt and economic strategy, is genuinely unique: no bulge bracket runs anything comparable at scale. Through 2025 the Financial Advisory business reported record first-half revenue (on Lazard's adjusted basis), helped by a recovery in sponsor-led M&A and a heavy restructuring pipeline.
For an analyst, that means lean deal teams, early responsibility and exposure to intellectually demanding, often cross-border work. Lazard recruits a small UK cohort into Financial Advisory and assigns analysts to a sector or product team after a six-week European training programme.
Why people apply to Lazard
Lazard is an intense, technically demanding environment with elite-boutique hours and a small, selective intake. You accept long hours and a high bar on technical precision in exchange for early responsibility, complex work and outstanding exits. It is not the place for those prioritising work-life balance or a broad full-service platform.
You want pure advisory at the highest level. Lazard does not lend, so the work is advice, judgement and analysis rather than financing, and analysts are close to senior bankers and clients from early on.
You are drawn to complexity: restructuring, distressed situations and sovereign work that few other firms can offer. Lazard's restructuring and Sovereign Advisory practices are a genuine differentiator and a strong springboard into special-situations funds and PE.
You value exit optionality. Lazard analysts place exceptionally well into private equity, hedge funds and corporate development, and the restructuring background in particular is prized by special-situations and credit funds.
Divisions inside Lazard's Investment Banking
M&A Advisory
Day-to-day
Building merger models and DCFs, preparing board materials and pitch books, and running analysis across sector or product teams. The bulk of the undergraduate intake sits here.
Interview style
Technical from early on: walk me through a DCF, accretion/dilution, why a deal makes strategic sense, plus a recent deal you can discuss.
High difficultyRestructuring & Liability Management
Day-to-day
Advising debtors or creditors in distressed situations: capital-structure analysis, debt-for-equity swaps, liquidity and covenant work, and negotiations with stakeholders. One of Lazard's flagship practices.
Interview style
The most technically distinctive: fulcrum security, signs of distress, restructuring mechanics, Chapter 11 versus UK administration, and how you value a distressed business.
Extreme difficultySovereign Advisory
Day-to-day
Advising governments and sovereign entities on debt restructuring, financing and economic strategy. A small, specialist team and a practice unique to Lazard at this scale.
Interview style
Macro and analytical: sovereign debt dynamics, why governments need advisers, and genuine intellectual curiosity about geopolitics and economics.
Extreme difficultyLazard Asset Management
Day-to-day
Research, portfolio support and client work across equities, fixed income and alternatives, on a longer horizon and with better hours than Financial Advisory.
Interview style
Markets-aware and fit-led: why asset management, a view on a stock or market, and a consistent, analytical temperament.
Moderate-high difficultyTry it now
Score your CV against Lazard's sift
Lazard talent acquisition screens thousands of CVs per cycle. Most are read in under 30 seconds. The candidates who get to interview have CVs that signal commercial relevance fast, in the format Lazard expects.
What Lazard looks for in a CV
Quantified impact
Numbers in every bullet: deal size, team size, percentage uplift, revenue managed. "Led a team" is filler, "led a 6-person team that delivered £400k of revenue" is a signal.
Named firms and deals
Lazard recruiters skim for brand names they recognise. Name your prior internships, the deals you observed, the clients you worked on. Specifics beat generic descriptions.
Industry-relevant language
Use the vocabulary of the investment banking world: DCF, comps, LBO, league tables, deal flow. Generic "analysed data" reads as not-yet-in-the-industry; the right terms read as ready.
Tight, structured layout
One page max. Reverse-chronological. Three to five bullets per role. No long paragraphs, no dense blocks. The skim test decides the read.
Try it on your own CV
Free, no card. We score on the dimensions above and tell you what to fix.
Drop your CV here
PDF, DOCX, or paste below
Free, no card required. Processed by our AI provider to build your report. Stored securely and deleted within 30 days unless you save it to an account. Privacy policy
The application
How Lazard hires
4 stages, real interview questions, the criteria that decide it, and the moves that separate offers from rejections.
The process, stage by stage
- 1
Online Application
Opens September-October.Lazard is known for the most complex deals. Show intellectual depth and genuine interest in advisory.
- 2
Phone/Video Interview
2-4 weeks after applicationTechnical from the start. Expect a DCF walkthrough and M&A questions even in the first interview.
- 3
Assessment Centre
November-February3-5 interviews. Extremely technical. Restructuring knowledge is a differentiator. Expect brain teasers.
- 4
Offer
Within 1-2 weeksSmall intake. Competitive package.
What Lazard asks at each round
Phone Screen
- Why Lazard?
- Walk me through a DCF.
- What is the difference between restructuring and M&A?
- Tell me about a complex deal in the news.
- Why advisory?
First Round
- Walk me through an LBO.
- How do you value a distressed company?
- What happens in a Chapter 11 / UK administration process?
- Tell me about a Lazard deal.
- Pitch me a restructuring situation.
Assessment Centre
- Walk me through a merger model.
- A company has £500m of debt and declining EBITDA. What are the options?
- How does a debt-for-equity swap work?
- What makes a good restructuring advisor?
- Tell me about a time you managed multiple complex tasks.
- Brain teaser: How many tennis balls fit in this room?
What Lazard looks for
Intellectual horsepower
Lazard deals are the most complex in banking. They need people who can handle ambiguity and multi-layered problems.
Technical depth
Most technically demanding interviews in banking. DCF, LBO, merger models, and restructuring mechanics tested in detail.
Genuine advisory interest
Pure advisory firm. They want people who care about advising clients, not processing transactions.
Work ethic
Elite boutique hours are intense. 75-85 hours/week. Lean teams, high expectations.
Communication
Advising boards of directors requires exceptional communication. Clear, concise, persuasive.
Intellectual curiosity
Restructuring involves understanding distressed situations, legal frameworks, and creative solutions.
The edge: what separates offers from rejections
Specific moves most applicants skip. None of them need talent, only preparation.
- 01Know the difference between M&A advisory and restructuring, Lazard does both at the highest level
- 02Reference a specific Lazard restructuring deal. Their Sovereign Advisory practice is unique.
- 03Technical preparation is non-negotiable. Know DCF, LBO, merger model, and restructuring mechanics.
- 04Lazard's Sovereign Advisory practice (advising governments) is a unique differentiator
- 05Show intellectual curiosity about distressed situations, they want people who find complexity exciting
Prep, stage by stage
Drill each Lazard round
Dedicated pages for the four rounds Lazard runs. Practise each round on Intervyo.
Psychometric Tests
SHL, Cappfinity, Watson-Glaser and more, in the exact format Lazard uses.
HireVue
Real Lazard questions, identical timer, scored on six competencies.
Live Interview
Conversational mocks tuned to Lazard's style, with follow-ups.
Assessment Centre
Case work, technicals, group exercises. Full-day rehearsal.
Pay & culture
Working at Lazard
What they pay
Graduate
~£65,000 base (~£110K+ total comp)
Internship
~£55,000 pro-rata
Perks
| Firm | Comp | Hours / week | Exit options |
|---|---|---|---|
| Rothschild | ~£65K / ~£100K total | 70-80/week | Very strong |
| Evercore | ~£70K / ~£120K+ total | 80-90/week | Very strong |
| Houlihan Lokey | ~£65K / ~£110K+ total | 70-80/week | Strong |
| Goldman Sachs (M&A) | ~£65K / ~£95K total | 70-80/week | Strongest |
What working at Lazard is like
- Pure advisory, M&A and restructuring
- 75-85 hours/week, elite boutique intensity
- Very lean teams, significant analyst responsibility
- Intellectually demanding work
- Mayfair/City office
- Small graduate intake, exclusive community
- Direct senior exposure from day one
- Known for the most complex cross-border deals
Timeline
When Lazard programmes open and close
By programme. Use these dates to plan applications across the cycle and submit early on rolling lines.
| Programme | Opens | Closes | Assessment | Offers | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Analyst Programme (Financial Advisory) | Late September | Late October | October to December | Rolling through winter | Permanent role after a six-week European training programme. |
| Summer Internship (Financial Advisory) | Mid-to-late September | Mid-to-late October | October to December | Rolling | 10-week internship; strong conversion to full-time Analyst. |
| Industrial Placement | Mid-October | Mid-November | November to January | - | 12-month placement for students on a placement year. |
| Spring Insight | Early November | Late November | - | - | Short insight event (often a single afternoon) for first-year undergraduates; fast-tracks summer applications. |
FAQ
Lazard application questions
What makes Lazard different from a bulge bracket?
Lazard is an independent advisory firm: it does not lend or trade for its own book, so it competes on advice, judgement and analysis rather than financing. That means leaner deal teams, earlier responsibility for analysts, and a focus on the most complex situations. Its restructuring and Sovereign Advisory practices, the latter advising governments on debt and economic strategy, are genuine differentiators that no bulge bracket runs at the same scale. The trade-off versus a bulge bracket is a narrower platform (no large financing arm) and intense hours, in exchange for advisory depth and outstanding exits.
How technical are Lazard interviews really?
Very, though the first round is often more relaxed and competency-led than its reputation suggests. Across the assessment centre you should expect rapid-fire technicals: a DCF walk-through, LBO and merger-model mechanics, accretion/dilution, and enterprise versus equity value. For restructuring-leaning teams, expect distinctive questions on the fulcrum security, signs of distress, debt-for-equity swaps and Chapter 11 versus UK administration. Brain teasers appear too. The bar is precision and genuine understanding under follow-up, not memorised scripts, so practise out loud until the mechanics are automatic.
What is Lazard's online assessment?
A timed cognitive aptitude test issued shortly after application, usually with a short completion window of around 72 hours. Most recent candidate reports describe the Criteria Cognitive Aptitude Test (CCAT), covering abstract, verbal, mathematical and logical questions under tight time pressure; some cycles have instead used SHL-style numerical and verbal reasoning. Either way the difficulty is pace, not concept, so the best preparation is timed practice across fast numerical, verbal and abstract reasoning so you are not learning the format on the day.
What are exit opportunities like from Lazard?
Excellent. Lazard analysts place strongly into private equity, hedge funds and corporate development, and the restructuring background is especially prized by distressed, special-situations and credit funds, a route few other firms open as readily. The combination of complex deal exposure, lean teams and early responsibility builds exactly the analytical toolkit buy-side recruiters look for. Many analysts move on-cycle to PE within their first year or two, or progress internally on the advisory track.
How competitive is it and how should I time my application?
Highly competitive: roughly 25,000 applications for a small London intake, with an acceptance rate in the low single digits. Lazard reviews on a rolling basis with a stated deadline, so the single most important practical step is to apply early in the window rather than waiting for the closing date, because places can fill first. Pair that with strong, specific motivation for Lazard and rigorous technical preparation for the later rounds.
How not to fail
Mistakes that cost candidates Lazard offers
Specific failure modes the firm screens out. None of these need talent to avoid, only awareness.
- 01Generic motivation. Saying you want banking or prestige rather than why Lazard's advisory and restructuring model specifically. Name a practice or deal.
- 02Underestimating the technical bar. Treating the first relaxed round as the whole story. Later rounds are rapid and demanding; know the mechanics cold.
- 03No restructuring awareness. Even M&A candidates should know the basics of distress and the fulcrum security; it is a Lazard signature.
- 04Applying late. Rolling review means late strong applicants can miss out to earlier ones. Apply early.
If you are rejected
What to do next
A Lazard rejection is not a verdict on your finance ability given how small the intake is. Build the technical base and target comparable platforms.
Elite boutiques
Rothschild, Evercore, PJT, Perella Weinberg and Moelis recruit similar profiles.
Restructuring specialists
Houlihan Lokey and PJT Park Hill for those drawn to distressed work.
Bulge-bracket M&A
Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley and JP Morgan for a broader platform.
Practise free
Walk into Lazard prepared
Practise every stage on Intervyo with AI-scored feedback: HireVue, psychometrics, live mock interviews, and CV. Free to start, no card required.
Start practising freeFree tools, upgrade any time
Intervyo is not affiliated with or endorsed by Lazard. Process details are sourced from past applicants, the firm's published guidance and our own research; verify timings on the firm's official careers site before applying. Last updated 21 July 2026.
Lazard
Practise free