First week on the job already made a mistake

NESCAC:

You'll likely be spreading cream cheese and lox for the top bucket interns.

I will take some Lettuce, Tomato, and Onion with that please

before submitting a draft, print out a hard copy and read through for spelling mistakes, correct formatting, numbers tying, etc. triple check everything. besides that, what more can you do, right?

this is not the end of the world. bankers have a tendency to make stupid shit seem ridiculously important, can't let these small things get to you.

LOL, I remember for my banking internship this summer I was updating a universe for precedent transactions. The implied EV/EBITDA for a comp was 19x, I thought, "NBD. They must have really wanted these guys, thought they could unearth a lot of value, etc." NO! Just print it out, go over it slowly, catch what you can.

Good luck!

Was a BB analyst and then associate, now a senior associate in PE. Used to think I would never cut it as a banker since my books had mistakes in my first year.

1. Always print out and read once before submitting anything. ALWAYS

2. Know what the standard analyst mistakes are and make sure they aren't there in your book, for example - numbers across the book should tally (no difference in revenue numbers between slide 1 and slide 3), if you are updating an old book then be doubly careful that all info is updated, font sizes should be same ( a print can quickly catch this), standard colors across the book, all footnotes should be updated and tie in with whatever is the the main body. Most mistakes happen because you tend to get into a processing mode and shut down the basic filtering mechanism in your head. Just take a step back and check if whatever you have written makes sense and you can explain any questions that might pop up in the mind of the reader.

3. Look for inconsistencies in financials, growth is usually positive and steady unless its some dot com or distressed asset, margins don't move up or down dramatically (if they do, understand why that happens), multiples for companies in a sector will be broadly in line, a 20-30% difference is fine, if 200% then question why and check your numbers again.

But its a simple game of being hyper paranoid about every single word and number in your slides and in 3-4 months you will internalize this stuff and be able to do things correct the first time around. Its not natural for people to focus on getting their commas and decimal points right, it is an acquired skill

I dont post much but you seem to have the right attitude, so thought I'd drop my 2 pence, Just hang in there and keep up the attitude, you will do really well.

Proofread everything carefully multiple times.

Stay disciplined when you go back through things. Think about each sentence and each number again individually to see if they make sense by themselves.

The "good" news is that before too long this will come naturally to you, and you'll be able to "feel" when things are wrong, or off... the bad news is it'll take a year of working 14 hours a day on bullshit to develop that ability, and you wont be able to work quickly and efficiently on things that have to be right for closer to two years.

And don't beat yourself up too badly. A lot of people make mistakes at their first job.

I'd just like to point out that the thread title is a little misleading. I was expecting a Brady-style "like rabbits" in the body of the text. Try reading your work from another's point of view...it might help you uncover details such as this in your work product.