Hey all, I've been told repeatedly these last few months that an associate promotion is coming in 2024, and I'll for sure be getting an analyst to train in Q1 + another later in 2024. While I thoroughly enjoy helping friends of mine with recruiting/job advice and also make an effort to hang out with our first year analysts, I do recognize that is more casual than formally being responsible for someone and their output.
I see a lot of horror stories about superiors and have had some nightmares myself too. I don't ever want to be that nightmare for someone else but recognize that late nights do need to happen sometimes. As I am going to be getting my own analyst, I wanted to see if the group had more formal advice on how to be a good manager + mentor. I of course want to do everything in my ability to train my analyst as well as I think I was trained (very well imo), and I also want them to feel like they can come to me with any questions.
Any advice or materials to read on leadership or being a better manager would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!
Small note, you NOT wanting to be a nightmare is a good sign, some people get off to being terrible to lower levels as revenge
2 key things. Don’t be snooty about splitting work with them if you have nothing better to do and don’t generate useless work yourself.
Can't speak from the managerial side, but as someone who had a fantastic boss this past summer, here are a couple things I think make a big difference:
1. Communicate the why. As the most junior member of a group, even a couple sentences that give you some visibility into the work of the team as a whole can be very insightful. If your analyst is working on a model for any given deal, let him know what other members of the team are doing working on the same deal. Not only is it motivating (gives your work meaning), it also helps the analyst learn more about how the team works.
2. More iterative feedback on technicals. One thing that I recognize my boss did that took time surrounding my first few modeling tasks was give me assignments a little more step by step. Instead of saying "build out this model over the next 3 days," he sort of broke the work into parts / few hour chunks. Then, depending on his availability, I was given more focused feedback on smaller parts of the model and could progress through it with that solidified understanding. This was incredibly more helpful than grinding something out and getting an overwhelmingly large pile of comments at the end. I also think by the end of the summer, it led to me having a much stronger understanding of technicals than some of my peers.
3. Talk to them about their progress and career. When initiating conversations, be a little more specific than "How are you doing?" or "What's the progress on X?" Specific questions about how they're adapting, their goals, and insights into your own experiences matter a lot re: comfort. I know people who felt like they never really got to know their supervisor. It made them uncomfortable and they asked fewer questions. Your authority is explicit and formal; there is no need to maintain some type of "distance" or vibe of superiority with your analyst. Relate your experiences to their own. Drop a couple anecdotes. If they feel like they know you, things will go smother.
4. Be communicative when possible. People getting into these jobs know bad hours are to be expected. That's fine. Letting your analyst know when that's coming as much in advance as possible is always appreciated. Moreover, when you're new, it's often difficult to tell when a "downtime" is coming / when you won't be missed. Instead of leaving your analyst sitting at their desk waiting for work that's not going to come for a few hours, let them know -- "Hey, there isn't much going on right now, don't stress, I'll let you know when something pops up." If you do this, your analyst will 100% see you as fair. Yeah, you're the guy communicating work to them, but you're also helping them out when possible. This will make your junior(s) want to work for you.
The fact that you're concerned is already a good sign. Whatever happens, I'm sure you'll do great. Congrats on the promotion!
This is great advice.
I would also add, and this is kind of an extension of 3 and 4, to make sure you recognize when you are giving the analyst some bitch work or something that will be particularly tedious. If you know what you are asking is going to be a pain for the analyst, say something to the effect of “I know this will be tedious/painful/etc but can you please do x? We need x done for y reasons and I would like you to do this.” I don’t know of anyone trying to get an analyst role who doesn’t know that there are painful job tasks. But being a manager that is aware of which tasks are going to suck to complete, and showing that awareness, is appreciated.
Also, to the extent your analyst is staying up till midnight or anything like that, show that you are seeing that. Say things like “I can see you are putting a lot of work into this” or things along that line.
A lot of the (but certainly not all of the) “people management” part of having subordinates in finance can be addressed simply by showing awareness of some of the suckier parts of the job.
The fact that you are actively seeking out advice on this demonstrates you are most likely already on a good path
I meant 1 and 4 not 3 and 4
Work with an analyst as a younger associate is tricky since there’s a level of friendship in the bullpen, but you are their boss and at times will need to be the bad cop.
Biggest advice for me is invest the time early to get them up to speed. When you’re jammed up, it’s easy to not give them a chance to do the work (faster for you to just do it) or when they send you junk quality work (which every single new analyst will do) just fix it and move on with your other work vs explaining how they should’ve done it.
The teaching / guidance pays dividends down the road - if you spend an extra hour now explaining why their model is wrong, it will save you 20 hours down the road when you can trust them to actually do the work correctly, even though it would probably be faster to just crank through it yourself in a pinch.
Very easy: Split work sensibly and give good guidance. Don‘t create extra work. Check everything they output and give feedback.
Change the mindset from ‘you’ll be getting an analyst’ to ‘an analyst will be available to help you’. You’re only marginally more senior and they’re not your lapdog. Try to give them rope to do stuff, don’t micromanage, don’t try to sound extra smart or be painful etc. If you give space the good ones will take it. Start from a perspective of trust and it’s theirs to lose (but yours to check) rather than the other way around
It will be a learning curve to understand how to manage people, so don't worry if you don't get it right the first time. Here are a few pointers:
Exactly! 100% agree
I've had some awesome superiors and not so awesome ones and the biggest separator for me is the way they view you. You can immediately tell if someone views you as a co-worker or a subordinate to abuse with extra work. That being said here is three things I've noticed in great superiors:
1. Don't micromanage
There is nothing worse in the world than being micromanaged, obviously your analyst will need to be proficient enough and build trust but don't constantly be checking in with them in a demeaning way. It is the absolute worse.
2. Focus on the good things they do
It's easy to find all the wrong things someone new does but instead focus and highlight to them what they are good at while giving helpful feedback on things to improve. I always felt way better about getting feedback when I felt like my superior actually thought I was talented and smart.
3. Remember what it was like to be in their shoes
It can be so easy as you move along in your career to forget what the previous stage was like even though we swear to ourselves that we will NEVER do what our boss did to us. Remind yourself off they are new, and trying to learn and will likely have a lot of questions.
The fact you are already thinking about this is a great sign and you are going to do awesome!
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