The Firm
Sequoia is an independent corporate finance advisory and investment firm. We specialise in mergers & acquisitions, strategic & capital markets advisory, direct private equity investments and investment management activities. Sequoia is headquartered in Amsterdam, the Netherlands.
Sequoia has an established franchise, with a wide variety of Dutch and international clients and cross-border transaction experience. Fully dedicated to our clients, we provide top-level impartial advice and focus on the establishment of long-term client relationships.
We offer our services across all sectors and have extensive experience in Energy & Power, Renewables, Infrastructure, Health Care and Technology. Our clients include private & listed companies, growth companies, private equity firms, hedge funds and central & local governments.
Our direct private equity activities focus on turnarounds, high growth opportunities and situations that require innovative solutions in dynamically changing market circumstances. We often invest the firm's capital and act in partnership with reputable industry specialists, institutional and/or private investors. We are generally active investors with clear views on how to move the business forward and, if necessary, are hands-on involved in the operations of our portfolio companies.
Sequoia was founded in 2002 by Dirk Brouwer, who has been active in the investment banking sector most of his professional career. Since its inception, Sequoia has completed numerous assignments and investments with a combined transaction value in excess of approximately EUR 20 billion.
Sequoia can provide an excellent foundation for building a successful professional career - a place for people to learn, achieve and grow both on a professional as well as on a personal level. A philosophy that balances personal lifestyles, ambition, perspectives and needs is an important part of our culture.
Skill Set
Sequoia looks for candidates who have a strong interest in business and finance and are either in the final year of their university study or have recently graduated. We encourage candidates from all academic disciplines and backgrounds to apply. Proficiency in Dutch is required.
We seek energetic, creative, well-rounded, self-motivated individuals with a passion for excellence. You need to have the ability to learn quickly, possess strong quantitative and analytical skills and have a desire to thrive in a dynamic, team-driven, entrepreneurial and high-pressure environment.
When selecting candidates to meet, we look for how all these qualities are reflected in your academic achievements, extracurricular activities and personal experiences. When we review your application, we look for an outstanding, compelling combination of academic achievement and active involvement in university campus clubs, sports or vocational activities.
We want to know about the ways in which you have challenged yourself to excel, where you have served as a team-leader or an active team participant, and instances in which your innovation and creative thinking have generated successful outcomes.
Sequoia only recruits on a limited basis and only looks for a highly select group of individuals with the above qualities.
Positions
Analysts
We currently have positions open for analysts.
If you are interested in an internship or analyst position at Sequoia, please submit your English language cover letter, resume and academic record to vzeegers@sequoia.eu.
What we offer
We offer individuals who are interested in working in a dynamic and entrepreneurial environment a compelling career opportunity.
Sequoia combines bulge-bracket investment banking expertise with the benefits of a small, entrepreneurial culture. This combination of quality and focus creates a tremendous opportunity for junior professionals to make an impact in addressing the complex and challenging situations facing Sequoia's clients. The firm provides all of its professionals with a broad set of transactional experiences across industries and disciplines. Assignments include the execution of mergers and acquisitions, divestitures, takeover defence, leveraged buyouts, corporate restructurings, partnerships and private equity investments.
Exposure to Senior Professionals
Due to Sequoia's size, working culture and philosophy, Sequoia offers significant direct exposure to the firm's group of highly experienced senior professionals.
High Level of Responsibility
Sequoia's business model encourages professionals to assume as much responsibility as their experience and talent warrant. We look to trust our professionals with an appropriate level of responsibility as a catalyst to accelerating their career and knowledge development.
As a result, a high level of client contact can be achieved from the very early moments of employment
Internships are an excellent way to familiarize yourself with Sequoia as an employer, meet its senior professionals, as well as have the opportunity to learn more about the combination of investment banking, private investment and investment management as a potential career path. Internships opportunities, lasting three months, provide us ample time to find out if you have what it takes to succeed at Sequoia. In deciding to take on students as an intern, we are looking for people that we would like to join us on a permanent basis. By the end of the internship, we want to be in a position to make you an offer for full-time employment.
As an intern, you will join our Amsterdam offices and fully participate in the various assignments and projects we undertake at that moment. Your work involves performing financial analysis, building and utilising financial models, researching and qualifying prospects, assembling and analysing company information, preparing advisory presentations and analysing private equity investment opportunities.
Please refer to the tab ‘Vacature' for further information on what we are looking for in internship/employment candidates and what we can offer you.
If you are interested in an internship at Sequoia, please submit your English language cover letter, resume and academic record to vzeegers@sequoia.eu.
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Personal details
Name: Dirk Mourik
Age: 26
Study: Finance and Accounting
Employed at Sequoia since: October 2010
Why I chose for Sequoia
I imagine that the decision you are facing right now is much like the decision I had to make upon graduating from the EUR in September 2010. ‘Where do I start my professional career?' I started preparing myself for this decision during my studies through internships at an international consultancy firm and a bulge bracket investment bank in London, by attending corporate in-house days and by participating in various career events. By the time I graduated I had a good view on what job opportunities were out there.
There are a number of compelling reasons why I chose to start my career at Sequoia. Most importantly, Sequoia and its employees have a reputation for excellence, with an unrivalled scope of projects the firm has successfully completed. Among these projects are advising activist hedge funds through the public-to-private process of Stork, advising shareholders during the EUR 10.3 billion sale of Nuon to Vattenfall, and the firm's co-investment in De IJsselmeerziekenhuizen (a group of three hospitals in The Netherlands).
What made Sequoia stand out for me personally is that, as a boutique corporate finance advisory firm, complex projects like the ones mentioned above are executed by a relatively small team. For a junior employee this means that you are a full team member with commensurate responsibilities. After orientating talks with Sequoia employees my beliefs were confirmed that this is both a very exciting and challenging setting, facilitating the steep learning curve I was looking for. Adding the exposure to senior professionals I would get by working in a small team, Sequoia offered me a fast track to becoming a well-rounded financial professional.
Working at Sequoia
In October 2010, I started my three-month internship with Sequoia. Sequoia requires all its employees to first complete an internship to assess skill and motivation before they are given employment contracts. It also gives both parties a chance to get to know each other and see if there is a fit. Teamwork is key in ensuring Sequoia's success as a leading corporate finance boutique. All team members depend on each other in delivering excellence to clients and bringing complex projects to a successful close in high pressure situations. As much as this creates challenging situations for starting employees, the pleasant and open way of communicating with each other ensures that every development opportunity is seized. The atmosphere at Sequoia's office on the 35th floor of the Rembrandt Tower (making it the highest office in Amsterdam) is informal and we have a lot of fun with each other. An annual ski trip and frequent social outings contribute to making Sequoia a pleasant place to work.
In January 2011, I became a full time analyst. Since then I have worked on a variety of projects, including various buy-side processes for international private equity firms, a fund raising process for a tech start-up and the preparation of materials used to engage both strategic and financial parties in a dialogue regarding opportunities in the market. I am given responsibility for end products, whilst being guided by senior employees. This has greatly benefitted my financial modeling and analysis skills. Also, I soon became comfortable with developing equity stories used in pitching materials and I have frequently had to back-up my financial analyses with strategy analyses, and the other way around. Together with a significant amount of client contact I have been able to lay a solid foundation for my career while working at Sequoia, a foundation which is broadened and solidified every day.
The skills I have acquired while working at Sequoia are an excellent match to my studies at the EUR, therefore I would advise the motivated and talented students among you, who are familiar with going the extra mile and beyond, to interview with us.
